Library Guides: Atanasoff–Berry Computer Resources: The ABC

The ABC

What was the ABC?

Iowa State College physics professor John Vincent Atanasoff had an idea for what would become an early electronic digital computer. His graduate assistant Clifford Berry helped him build it. This machine is called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (or ABC) and was built and used between 1937 and 1942. The project ended because of World War II.

You can use this webpage to find links to resources about the ABC itself and the men who built it.

History

The University Library has a few collections of primary sources related to the ABC and the Department of Computer Science hosts a website about the machine and the men who built it.

John Vincent Atanasoff Papers
Find materials in ISU Library's Special Collections and University Archives department that were donated by Atanasoff himself. This collection includes photographs and diagrams of the ABC.
John Vincent Atanasoff Collection
Find materials in the Special Collections and University Archives department that were collected and produced by the Iowa State University Office of University Relations regarding Atanasoff and the ABC.
John Vincent Atanasoff Digital Collection
View selected items from the prior collections that have been digitized for online access.
John Vincent Atanasoff and the Birth of Electronic Digital Computing
Learn more about Atanasoff, Berry, and the ABC from the Department of Computer Science. This webpage details both men as well as a court case involving the ABC that invalidated the patent of ENIAC (another early computer), and a project that built a working replica of the original ABC.

Replica

A working replica of the ABC was built here at ISU in the 1990s. Read more about that below.

The Atanasoff-Berry Computer In Operation
Watch a YouTube video showing the replica ABC in operation.
Reconstruction of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (Archive)
View the Scalable Computer Laboratory (at Ames Lab) website about the replica project.
The ABC Replica at the Computer History Museum
Read more about the replica ABC which has been on exhibit at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA since 2010.
ABC Computer: Replicating the First Electronic Computer
Find plans to make your own ABC replica. This is a GitHub repository of the digitized plans of the ABC.

Legacy

Since the creation of the ABC John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry have received recognition for their invention from many sources.

"The First Electronic Computer" article
Read a 1987 article in Physics Today that tells the story of Atanasoff and the ABC (you need a subscription to read this).
Excerpt from Honeywell, Inc. v. Sperry Rand Corp., et al.
Read the part of the court decision that voided the ENIAC patent on the concept of the computer. The linked part is where Atanasoff's work is described as being "prior art" - meaning that the ABC was an earlier "computer" and ENIAC wasn't a new enough idea to get a patent.
Timeline of Computer History at the Computer History Museum
View the ABC's entry in the Computer History Museum's timeline. You might want to read this to see where the ABC fits into the crowded space of "firsts" in modern computing.
John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry Memorial Bridge website
Read a webpage about a "flyover" bridge highway interchange near Ames that was completed in 2020. The bridge was named after Atanasoff and Berry. The pylons supporting the bridge include brickwork mimicking FORTRAN computer punch cards that spell out messages about the two men and their invention. Note that while the ABC used punch cards in its operation, the FORTRAN language used here came later.
Bridge Punch Card "Quiz"
View pictures of what the memorial bridge message "punch cards" would look like. There is also a FORTRAN key that you can use to decode them.

Your Librarian

Jesse Garrison

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Subjects: Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, Geology, Mechanical Engineering, Meteorology, Physics & Astronomy