As an ISU CompSci major, we learned something about this in 101.
>From what I remember, the ABC wasn't really too impressive as a computer
goes. It was actually just a proof of concept, and wasn't very usable,
even for checking Mersenne prime numbers. As legend has it, Atanasoff
was sitting in a coffeehouse when his idea of a programmable computer
with memory popped into his head. He quickly jotted the idea down in a
napkin, folded it up, and saved it. Several years later, he and an
engineer grad student (Berry) built the computer. He didn't document
too much about the computer. When he got it to add several numbers
together and implemented a stack, he called it a success and filed for
the patent.
ISU lost the patent application and never sent it in. They lost the
rights to the patent when ENIAC was born. Atanasoff thought everything
was filled out, and never bothered to double-check the patent. When he
realized he hadn't received any royalties, it was too late, and ISU had
torn the computer down to make room for research during WWII.
In an attempt to fix things up, the CompSci dept (rightly) named their
building after him. He was still very mad about losing all the patent
money, and never forgave ISU for losing the paperwork.
Ryan McGarry
Jud McCranie wrote:
>
> At 11:29 PM 11/28/99 -0500, Vincent J. Mooney Jr. wrote:
> > I also give Atanasoff 5 stars for NOT PATENTING anything.
>
> He (and ISU) tried to patent it.
>
> +--------------------------------------------------------+
> | Jud McCranie |
> | |
> | 137*2^197783+1 is prime! (59,541 digits, 11/11/99) |
> +--------------------------------------------------------+
>
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