John Atanasoff

John V. Atanasoff

John Vincent Atanasoff [ dʒon vinsent ata'nasɔf ] (born October 4, 1903 in Hamilton , New York , † June 15, 1995 in Frederick , Maryland ) was an American computer pioneer. In 1973, he was named by a court ruling in the Honeywell Inc. vs. Sperry Rand patent litigation to be the inventor of the first automatic electronic digital computer, a non-programmable special-purpose machine later known as the Atanasoff-Berry computer .

Life

John Atanasoff was the son of the electrical engineer Ivan Atanassow and the math teacher Iva Lucena Purdy. His father, Ivan Atanasov, was born in 1876 in the village of Boiadzhik ( Yambol Oblast ) in Bulgaria , which at that time still belonged to the Ottoman Empire , shortly before his father was killed in the April uprising in 1876 . In 1889 Ivan Atanasov emigrated to the United States with his uncle.

Atanasoff was raised by his parents in Brewster, Florida . By the age of nine he could use the slide rule , studied logarithms, and then attended Mulberry High School . In 1925 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Florida with the highest possible grade.

He continued his education at Iowa State College and received his master's degree in mathematics in 1926 . His degree was completed in 1930 with a doctorate ( Ph.D. ) in theoretical physics from the University of Wisconsin – Madison . The title of his dissertation was: The Dielectric Constant of Helium . After receiving his doctorate, Atanasoff took a position as an assistant professor at Iowa State College in mathematics and physics .

Replica of the Atanasoff-Berry computer in the Durham Center at Iowa State University

For the calculations for his dissertation, Atanasoff used an electromechanical desktop calculator from the Monroe Calculator Company , the best tool at the time. Nevertheless, the calculations were very tedious, so Atanasoff began to look for faster calculation methods; Among other things, he dealt with the use of IBM tabulating machines to solve scientific problems. In 1936 he invented an analog computer for analyzing surface geometries. The small mechanical tolerances that were necessary for a precise solution gave him the idea of looking for digital solutions.

According to Atanasoff's own information, various working principles of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) go back to a sudden inspiration during a car trip to Rock Island (Illinois) in the winter of 1937–1938. With a grant of $ 650 in September 1939 and with the help of his graduate student Clifford Berry , a prototype of the ABC was developed in November 1939.

The basic principles of ABC included binary arithmetic and Boolean logic to solve up to 29 linear equations . The ABC did not have a CPU , but it was an electronic device with electron tubes for digital calculation. He also used a regenerative capacitive storage system ; the principle of this can be found in the DRAM memories.

John Atanasoff met John Mauchly in December 1940 at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Philadelphia , where Mauchly presented his "harmonic analyzer", an analog computer for analyzing weather data. Atanasoff told Mauchly about his new digital device and invited him to take a look at it. On the trip to Philadelphia, Atanasoff and Berry also visited the Washington, DC Patent Office , where their research convinced them that their concepts were novel. On January 15, 1941, the Iowa daily Des Moines Register reported that the ABC, "an electrical calculating machine" with more than 300 electron tubes, could "solve complex algebraic equations."

In June 1941 Mauchly visited Atanasoff in Ames , Iowa to see the ABC. During his four-day visit to Atanasoff's house as a guest, Mauchly thoroughly discussed the prototypical ABC, examined it and studied Atanasoff's draft manuscript in detail. Up to this point in time, Mauchly had not yet submitted a plan for a digital computer. In September 1942 Atanasoff left Iowa State University to take up a position as head of the acoustics department at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) in Washington DC. He entrusted his patent application for the ABC to the administration of Iowa State College, which they never submitted.

Mauchly visited Atanasoff several times in Washington in 1943 and discussed his theories about calculations with him, but did not mention that he was working on a computer project himself until early 1944. In 1943–1946, John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert constructed the ENIAC , the first general purpose electronic computer , which two decades later led to a legal dispute over who was the real inventor of the computer .

In 1945, the US Navy also decided to build a mainframe on the recommendation of John von Neumann . Atanasoff was tasked with leading the project and asked Mauchly for help in formulating job descriptions for the necessary staff. However, Atanasoff was also contracted to design acoustic systems for monitoring nuclear weapons tests, and that contract took priority. When he returned from testing in Bikini Atoll in July 1946 , the Navy's computer project - again on the recommendation of John von Neumann - was discontinued due to a lack of progress.

Mauchly and Eckert applied for a patent for a “general-purpose electronic computer” in 1947, which was only granted in 1964. The patent rights had already been sold to Remington Rand (now Sperry Rand ) in 1951 , who founded a subsidiary, Illinois Scientific Developments , in order to demand license fees from other manufacturers in electronic data processing in the 1960s.

In June 1954, patent attorney AJ Etienne sought help from Atanasoffs on behalf of IBM to break a patent of Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation for a magnetic drum memory ; he had been advised by Clifford Berry that the rotating capacitor store of the ABC possibly refuted the novelty character of the Eckert-Mauchly store. Atansoff agreed to help the attorney, but IBM eventually settled out of court with Sperry Rand so the case was dropped .

On May 26, 1967, computer manufacturer Honeywell Inc. filed a lawsuit against Sperry Rand in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis , Minnesota , in which the validity of the ENIAC patent was challenged. The trial, at that time one of the longest and most expensive before the federal courts, began on June 1, 1971 and lasted until March 13, 1972. 77 witnesses were called, 80 affidavits were given and 30,000 pieces of evidence were presented. The proceedings ended on October 19, 1973 with a judgment by Judge Earl R. Larson , who declared the ENIAC patent invalid because ENIAC derived many basic ideas from the Atanasoff-Berry computer. Judge Larson stated explicitly: “Eckert and Mauchly were not the first to invent the automatic electronic digital calculator, but rather this object from one of the Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff derived “.

Sperry declined to appeal the decision, but the decision received little attention at the time, perhaps because it was overshadowed by the Watergate- era Saturday Night Massacre when President Richard Nixon dismissed Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox the following day . Despite the unquestioned court decision, a number of publications on computer history continued to present ENIAC instead of ABC as the first electronic digital computer.

After World War II , Atanasoff remained a government employee and developed specialized seismographs and microbarographs for the detection of explosions from a distance. In 1952 he founded the Ordnance Engineering Corporation , which he also directed and sold to the Aerojet General Corporation in 1956 , where he then became President of the Atlantic Division.

In 1960 Atanasoff and his wife Alice retired to their hilltop farm in New Market, Maryland . In 1961 he founded another company, Cybernetics Incorporated, in Frederick, Maryland , which he ran for another twenty years. Little by little, he became embroiled in litigation between the rapidly growing computer companies Honeywell and Sperry Rand. After he was found to be the inventor of the automatic electronic digital computer in the trial judgment, he was warmly honored by Iowa State College, which had since been renamed Iowa State University; further honors followed.

Atanasoff died of a stroke in his home after a prolonged illness. He is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Mount Airy, Maryland .

honors and awards

Monument to John Atanasoff in Sofia , Bulgaria, the home of his ancestors

Atanasoff's first state award for his scientific achievements was the Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius, first class, the highest scientific honor in Bulgaria, which he received in 1970, i.e. before the court decision of 1973.

In 1990, President George HW Bush awarded Atanasoff the United States National Medal of Technology , the highest American honor for technical achievement.

Atanasoff's other honors are:

• US Navy Distinguished Service Award (1945)
• Honorable Mention, Seismological Society of America (1947)
• Honorable Mention, Admiral, Bureau of Ordnance (1947)
• Membership in the Cosmos Club (1947)
• Honorary Doctorate from the University of Florida (1974)
• Honorary Member of the Society for Computer Medicine (1974)
• Iowa Inventors Hall of Fame (1978)
• Computer Pioneer Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE (1981)
• Iowa Governor's Science Medal (1985)
• Order of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, First Class (1985)
• Computing Appreciation Award, EDUCOM (1985)
• External member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1985)
• Holley Medal, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1985)
• Honorary Citizen of the City of Yambol , Bulgaria (1985; Atanasoff's father came from the area of ​​Yambol)
• Coors American Ingenuity Award (1986)
• Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin – Madison (1987)

Named after Atanasoff

• Atanasoff nunatak (a nunatak on Livingston Island , South Shetland Islands , Antarctica )
• The asteroid (3546) Atanasoff , discovered by the Rozhen Observatory
• Atanasoff Hall, an Iowa State University computer science building
• "Project Vincent", the implementation of the Project Athena of MIT at Iowa State University (named after middle Atanasoffs name)
• The John Atanasoff Prize, donated by Georgi Parvanov in 2003 and awarded annually by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria to a young Bulgarian for achievements in the field of computers and information technology
• John Atanasoff Technical College in Plovdiv , a branch of the Sofia Technical University
• John Atanasoff Bulgarian State Competition in Computer Science and Information Technology, held annually in the city of Shumen since 2001
• John Atanasoff Professional High School of Electronics in Stara Sagora , Bulgaria
• John Atanasoff Vocational High School for Electronics in Sofia
• John Atanasoff Municipal House ( Tschitalischte ) in Sofia
• John Atanasoff meeting house in Boiadjik , Bulgaria (birthplace of Atanasoff's father)
• Prof. John Atanasoff Primary School, Sofia
• John Atanasoff Private High School, Blagoevgrad , Bulgaria
• John Atanasoff Professional Technical High School, Kyustendil , Bulgaria
• John Atanasoff Vocational High School for Information Systems Targovishte , Bulgaria
• John Atanasoff University Student Computer Club, University of Plovdiv , Bulgaria
• John Atanasoff Street, Yambol , Bulgaria
• John Atanasoff Street, Sofia

See also

• Claude Shannon
• George Stibitz

literature

• John V. Atanasoff: Advent of the Electronic Digital Computing . In: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing . tape 6 , 3, July – September, 1984, pp. 229-282 , doi : 10.1109 / MAHC.1984.10028 .
• Alice R. Burks, Arthur W. Burks: The First Electronic Computer. The Atanasoff Story . The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1988, ISBN 0-472-10090-4 .
• Alice Rowe Burks: Who Invented The Computer? The Legal Battle that Changed Computing History . Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York 2003, ISBN 1-59102-034-4 .
• Arthur W. Burks, Alice R. Burks: The ENIAC: First General-Purpose Electronic Computer . In: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing . tape 3 , no. 4 , October 1981, p. 310-399 , doi : 10.1109 / MAHC.1981.10043 .
• Tammara Burton: World Changer . Tangra TanNakRa Publishing, Sofia 2006, ISBN 954-9942-94-5 .
• John V. Atanasoff Dies at Age 91 Invented First Electronic Computer . In: Washington Post , 1995, obituary.
• Allan R. Mackintosh: The First Electronic Computer . In: Physics Today . tape 40 , no. 3 , March 1987, p. 25-32 , doi : 10.1063 / 1.881101 .
• Allan R. Mackintosh: Dr. Atanasoff's computer. In: Scientific American . Vol. 259, No. 2, August 1988, pp. 90-96.
• Clark R. Mollenhoff: Atanasoff. Forgotten Father of the Computer . Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa 1988, ISBN 0-8138-0032-3 .
• Calvin N. Mooers: The Computer Project at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory . In: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing . tape 23 , 2 (April – June), 2001, pp. 51-67 .

Web links

Commons : John Atanasoff  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Biographical information (English)
• Computer pioneer Atanasoff for the 100th heise online from October 4, 2003
• Information about Atanasoff from Iowa State University with additional links
• johnatanasoff.com (English)
• Atanasoff Personal Papers - Iowa State University Library
• John V. Atanasoff: Obituary - Virtual Museum of Computing
• Author profile in the database zbMATH

Individual evidence

1. ^ JV Atanasoff: The Beginning . Narodna Mladezh Publishers, Sofia 1985. (Bulgarian version of his publication from 1984) Foreword in English ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Mollenhoff, pp. 62-66.
3. ↑ Mollenhoff, pages 81-86.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Kiril Boyanov: John Vincent Atanasoff - The Inventor of the First Electronic Digital Computing . (PDF; 327 kB)
5. ^ ^{A b} Yambol Province Government. ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Bulgarian)  
6. ↑ SCAR Composite Antarctic Gazetteer ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Minor Planet Names: Alphabetical List
8. ^ Lutz D. Schmadel : Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . Springer-Verlag Telos, 2000, ISBN 978-3-540-66292-1 , 1319 pp.
9. ↑ John Atanasoff Award ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ↑ bestowing the 2005 John Atanasoff Award. ( Memento of the original from June 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Iowa State University website.  
11. ^ John Atanasoff Technical College.
12. ^ The 7th John Atanasoff Tournament. Darik News Website (Bulgarian)
13. ^ John Atanasoff Professional High School of Electronics, Stara Zagora. ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
14. ^ John Atanasoff Professional High School of Electronics, Sofia. ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
15. ↑ John Atanasoff Chitalishte, Sofia. ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
16. ↑ John Atanasoff Chitalishte, Boyadzhik. ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
17. ^ Prof. John Atanasoff Primary School, Sofia. Picture
18. ^ John Atanasoff Private High School, Blagoevgrad. ( Memento of the original from February 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
19. ^ John Atanasoff Professional Technical High School, Kyustendil.
20. ^ John Atanasoff Professional High School of Economic Informatics, Targovishte. ( Memento of the original from June 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
21. ^ John Atanasoff University Student Computer Club, Plovdiv University. ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
22. ^ John Atanasoff Street, Yambol addressee.
23. ^ John Atanasoff Street, Sofia addressee. ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.