Search in: Word
Vietnamese keyboard: Off
Virtual keyboard: Show
Computing (FOLDOC) dictionary
John Vincent Atanasoff
Jump to user comments
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
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 digitalcomputer, 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).