Atanasoff–Berry computer

An experimental electronic digital computer built by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry at Iowa State College between 1939 and 1942. It used binary arithmetic, electronic logic, and capacitors for memory.

Binary number system: A positional numeral system that represents numbers using only the digits 0 and 1. The machine represented numbers in binary rather than decimal.
John Vincent Atanasoff: An American physicist who designed the Atanasoff–Berry computer with Clifford Berry. He conceived the machine’s architecture and led its development.
Digital data: Information represented by discrete values rather than continuously varying quantities. The machine encoded numerical information as discrete binary digits.
Computer history: The study of the development of computing devices, algorithms, and institutions. The machine occupies a contested place in accounts of early electronic computing.
Vacuum tube: An electronic component that controls electric current through a vacuum inside a sealed tube. Vacuum tubes performed the machine’s electronic logical operations.
Clifford Berry: An American electrical engineer who collaborated with John Vincent Atanasoff on the Atanasoff–Berry computer. He built and tested much of the machine’s circuitry.
Computer memory: Hardware or media used to retain data and instructions for computation. Its capacitor drums provided a limited form of electronic numerical storage.
Computer programming: The creation of instructions that direct a computer to perform operations. Its lack of stored instructions distinguishes the machine from programmable computers that followed.
Capacitor: An electrical component that stores energy in an electric field between conductors. Capacitors stored binary digits on rotating drums.
Iowa State University: A public research university in Ames, Iowa, founded as Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. The computer was developed at the institution then called Iowa State College.

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