[HM] The first electronic computer

Laurent Hodges (lhodges@iastate.edu)
Tue, 28 Sep 1999 11:41:39 -0500

In the history of electronic computers, one should not overlook John
Vincent Atanasoff's from 1940 plus or minus. It was a digital electronic
computer that was the first to use binary arithmetic (unlike the ENIAC),
parallel programming, and regenerative memory, but it was only a
special-purpose (non-programmable) computer, intending for solving up to 29
simultaneous linear equations.

There is a good book on his computer, The First Electronic Computer, by
Alice and Arthur Burks (1988). Arthur Burks was a key scientist on the
ENIAC project, the one ENIAC used in its first public "appearance," and he
researched and wrote the book after realizing that many of the good ideas
in the ENIAC had been derived from Atanasoff.

My web page has a link to a little animation of the computer and a link to
further information about the Atanasoff-Berry Computer.

Laurent Hodges, Professor of Physics
12 Physics Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-3160
lhodges@iastate.edu http://www.public.iastate.edu/~lhodges