<person> John Vincent Atanasoff, 1903-10-04 - 1995-06-15. An American mathemetical physicist, and the inventor of the electronic digital computer. Between 1937 and 1942 he built the Atanasoff-Berry Computer with Clifford Berry, at the Iowa State University. Atanasoff was born on 1903-10-04 in Hamilton, New York. In 1925, he got a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida. In 1926 he received a Master's degree in Maths from Iowa State University. He received a PhD as a theoretical physicist from the University of Wisconsin in 1930. While an associate professor of mathematics and physics at Iowa State University, Atanasoff began to envision a digital computational device, believing analogue devices to be too restrictive. Whilst working on his electronic {digital computer}, Atanasoff was introduced to a graduate student named Clifford Berry, who helped him build the computer. The first prototype of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer was demonstrated in December 1939. Although no patent was awarded for the new computer, in 1973 US District Judge Earl R. Larson declared Atanasoff the inventor of the digital computer (declaring the ENIAC patent invalid). Atanasoff was awarded the National Medal of Technology by US President Bush on 1990-11-13. He died following a stroke on 1995-06-15. {John Vincent Atanasoff and the Birth of the Digital Computer (http://cs.iastate.edu/jva/jva-archive.shtml)}. ["Atanasoff Forgotten Father of the Computer", C. R. Mollenhoff, Iowa State University Press 1988]. (2001-10-03)

The Atanasoff–Berry computer (ABC) was the first automatic electronic digital computer. Limited by the technology of the day, and execution, the device has remained somewhat obscure. The ABC's priority is debated among historians of computer technology, because it was neither programmable, nor Turing-complete. Conventionally, the ABC would be considered the first electronic ALU (arithmetic logic unit) – which is integrated into every modern processor's design.

Its unique contribution was to make computing faster by being the first to use vacuum tubes to do the arithmetic calculations. Prior to this, slower electro-mechanical methods were used by Konrad Zuse's Z1, and the simultaneously developed Harvard Mark I. The first electronic, programmable, digital machine, the Colossus computer from 1943 to 1945, used similar tube-based technology as ABC.

<computer> (ABC) An early design for a binary calculator, one of the predecessors of the digital computer. The ABC was partially constructed between 1937 and 1942 by Dr. {John Vincent Atanasoff} and Clifford Berry at Iowa State College. As well as binary arithmetic, it incorporated {regenerative memory}, parallel processing, and separation of memory and computing functions. The electronic parts were mounted on a rotating drum, making it hybrid electronic/electromechanical. It was designed to handle only a single type of mathematical problem and was not automated. The results of a single calculation cycle had to be retrieved by a human operator, and fed back into the machine with all new instructions, to perform complex operations. It lacked any serious form of logical control or conditional statements. Atanasoff's patent application was denied because he never have a completed, working product. Ideas from the ABC were used in the design of ENIAC (1943-1946). http://cs.iastate.edu/jva/jva-archive.shtml. (2003-09-28)