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Atanasoff–Berry Computer Resources

A collection of links to a variety of resources related to the Atanasoff-Berry Computer. This includes resources available through the university Library, the Computer Science Department, and other external persons/organizations.

General Information

Professor John Vincent Atanasoff conceived and, along with his graduate assistant Clifford Berry, built one of the earliest electronic digital computers here at what was then Iowa State College. The Atanasoff-Berry Computer (or ABC) was built and operated between 1937 and 1942 when the project was interrupted by the second World War.

Below are a collection of links to resources related to the project.

Links

John Vincent Atanasoff Papers
This link is to the finding aid (similar to a table of contents) for materials in the ISU Library's Special Collections and University Archives department that were donated by Atanasoff himself. This includes photographs and diagrams of the ABC.
John Vincent Atanasoff Collection
Another finding aid for the Special Collections and University Archives department, this time for materials collected and produced by the Iowa State University Office of University Relations regarding Atanasoff and the ABC.
John Vincent Atanasoff Digital Collection
A selection of digitized items from the previous collections provided by the library's Digital Collections department.
John Vincent Atanasoff and the Birth of Electronic Digital Computing
A page managed by the Department of Computer Science. It details both of the men involved as well, the court case involving the ABC that invalidated the ENIAC patent, and the replica project.
ABC Computer: Replicating the First Electronic Computer
A GitHub repository of the plans for the ABC that have been digitized with the explicit goal that by being made publicly available people will use them to construct additional replicas.
The Atanasoff-Berry Computer In Operation
YouTube video demonstrating the replica ABC in operation.
Reconstruction of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (Archive)
Archived version of the Scalable Computer Laboratory (at Ames Lab) website about the replica project.
The ABC Replica at the Computer History Museum
The replica device built at ISU in the 1990s has been on exhibit at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA since 2010.