Ames Lab, DOE, ISU, Ames, Iowa

Reconstruction of the
Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC)

60 years of digital computing

The Atanasoff-Berry Computer was the first electronic digital computer.

Built in 1937-1942 at Iowa State University by John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry, it introduced the ideas of binary arithmetic, regenerative memory, and logic circuits. These ideas were communicated from Atanasoff to Mauchly, who used them in the design of the better-known ENIAC built several years later.

The original ABC was dismantled decades ago. Ames Laboratory, using private funding, is building a working replica of this historically important invention. These Web pages tell about our progress, and give background about this remarkable machine and its inventors.

For more information, see the ISU Computer Science webpages on John Vincent Atanasoff and the Birth of the Digital Computer

Contacts:

John Gustafson		johngustafson
John McCarroll, AL Public Relations	+1-515-294-9557	jmccarol@iastate.edu