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.
It was a special purpose machine that could solve a system of several linear equations.
> ISU lost the patent application and never sent it in.
I think that one of the books I read said that it just fell by the wayside when the US got involved in WWII, or something like that.
+--------------------------------------------------------+
|
Jud
McCranie
|
|
|
| 137*2^197783+1 is prime! (59,541 digits,
11/11/99) |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
