Iowa State University
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Iowa State University
11-14-96

Contacts:
John Gustafson, Ames Laboratory, (515) 294-9294
Skip Derra, News Service, (515) 294-4917

ISU TO SHOW OFF ABC REPLICA AT SUPERCOMPUTING CONFERENCE

AMES, Iowa -- The first public showing of a replica of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), the first electronic digital computer, will be held Monday, Nov. 18, at the Supercomputing '96 Conference in Pittsburgh. Provost John Kozak is leading a delegation of Iowa State officials to the conference for the unveiling.

When completed, the replica will be a working model of the original ABC, which professor John Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry designed and built at Iowa State from 1939-1942. Many of the basic computing principles used to this day were first demonstrated in the original ABC, said John Gustafson, an Ames Laboratory computational scientist and replica team member.

"Anyone with a sense of computer history will be able to look inside the replica and see the basic principles on which modern computing has been built," Gustafson said.

The replica is being built by a team of scientists, engineers and students from Iowa State, Ames Laboratory and the Institute for Physical Research and Technology.

The replica will be featured at a special history exhibit of Supercomputing '96, a trade show co-sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery. Supercomputing '96 will run from Nov. 17-22 at the Lawrence Convention Center.

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