John Vincent Atanasoff was an American physicist and mathematician born in 1903. His father was a Bulgarian immigrant from Boyadzhik. Teaching at Iowa State College, he worked with Clifford Berry on an electronic machine in 1939–1942. The ABC was designed for linear equations and used binary numbers and capacitor memory, but had no stored program. In 1973 a court invalidated the ENIAC patent and found derivation from his work; this did not declare him the sole creator of all computers. Atanasoff visited Bulgaria in 1970 and died in 1995. Surviving parts and the later reconstruction provide different evidence of the project.
Achievements
Worked with Clifford Berry on the ABC in 1939–1942.
Used binary representation and electronic calculation.
Used binary representation and electronic calculation.
History of Bulgaria
