21 Aug
2008
21 Aug
'08
10:37 p.m.
"bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca" wrote:
The other factor ... this was a proof of concept here.
OK , it worked
We got our Grant, Fame,PHD what ever and it shelved as it was for
achademic use only.
That is a gross misrepresentation of Atanasoff's objectives. He was attempting
to produce a functioning computing machine to support his 'real' research
objectives (climate modelling, IIRC). It may have been ambitious in that he
wasn't an EE by background, and it may not have been entirely successful, but
it was not a vanity project. He had nowhere near the resources or audience of
other computing projects of the period such as the Stibitz/Bell relay
calculator, Harvard Mark 1, ENIAC or SSEC. (TMK) He already had a PhD. Fame
didn't enter the picture until decades later and unintentionally at that.