Atanasoff-Berry Computer
University of Iowa
The Atanasoff–Berry computer (ABC) was the first automatic electronic digital computer, an early electronic digital computing device that has remained somewhat obscure. To say that it was the first is a debate among historians of computer technology as it was not programmable. Many credit John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, creators of the ENIAC,[1] which came into use in July 1946, with the title. Others cite the British contender Colossus, a development team headed by Tommy Flowers demonstrated Colossus to be working on December 8, 1943. The world's first electronic digital computer that was programmable, it ran at a remarkable (for the time) 5.8 MHz. Designed and used exclusively for code breaking during World War II, after the war alternative uses were considered, but they remained in use for their original purpose until the late 1950s.