vanpelt@unisv.UUCP (Mike Van Pelt) (09/14/88)
In article <6085@ihlpf.ATT.COM> cem@ihlpf.ATT.COM (Malloy) writes:
. Are suggesting that AT&T sue SEA for the exact same reason that
.SEA sues PKWARE? All of the "LOOK AND FEEL" stuff is really getting
.out of hand. Maybe IBM should sue everyone that makes a computer.
No. Not IBM. Univac. The Univac 1 long pre-dated the first IBM
computer. The company was started by the guys who build the Eniac.
--
Mike Van Pelt Unisys, Silicon Valley vanpelt@unisv.UUCP
Bring back UNIVAC! ...uunet!ubvax!unisv!vanpeltegs@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Schnoebelen) (09/15/88)
In article <613@unisv.UUCP> vanpelt@unisv.UUCP (Mike Van Pelt) writes: >In article <6085@ihlpf.ATT.COM> cem@ihlpf.ATT.COM (Malloy) writes: >. Are suggesting that AT&T sue SEA for the exact same reason that >.SEA sues PKWARE? All of the "LOOK AND FEEL" stuff is really getting >.out of hand. Maybe IBM should sue everyone that makes a computer. > >No. Not IBM. Univac. The Univac 1 long pre-dated the first IBM >computer. The company was started by the guys who build the Eniac. >-- >Mike Van Pelt Unisys, Silicon Valley vanpelt@unisv.UUCP >Bring back UNIVAC! ...uunet!ubvax!unisv!vanpelt No, not Univac. The Gentlemen who brought you the Eniac, got at least some of their ideas from a gentleman name Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff, at Iowa State University ( then Iowa State College ) in 1941. Dr. Atanasoff built the first electronic digital computer at Iowa State between 1939 and 1941, with the help of graduate student Clifford Berry. See Honeywell vs. Sperry, 1973. No one holds/held patents on the original electronic digital computer. ( The University forgot to file the patent papers during WWII ) For more information about the above, there have been two book published recently, one by the ISU Press, A biography of the ABC and the subsequent lawsuits, and another by University of Michigan Press, which is more detailed about the machine itself. Since the books are at home, and I am at work, I don't have the names, sorry. ( if you hadn't guessed, I am an ISU alumni.. ) Eric Schnoebelen John W. Bridges & Associates, Inc. Lewisville, Tx. u-word!egs@killer.dallas.tx.us ( A Cyclone in Longhorn/Mustang country )
seeger@beach.cis.ufl.edu (F. L. Charles Seeger III) (09/15/88)
In article <5525@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> u-word!egs@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Eric Schnoebelen) writes: |No, not Univac. The Gentlemen who brought you the Eniac, got at least |some of their ideas from a gentleman name Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff, at |Iowa State University ( then Iowa State College ) in 1941. Dr. Atanasoff |built the first electronic digital computer at Iowa State between 1939 |and 1941, with the help of graduate student Clifford Berry. See | |( if you hadn't guessed, I am an ISU alumni.. ) | | Eric Schnoebelen But, Dr. Atanasoff is a Univ. of Florida Gator graduate. We can't let ISU get all the credit. 8^) Go Gators Chuck
sarathy@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Rajiv Sarathy) (09/16/88)
In article <5525@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> u-word!egs@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Eric Schnoebelen) writes: >In article <613@unisv.UUCP> vanpelt@unisv.UUCP (Mike Van Pelt) writes: >>In article <6085@ihlpf.ATT.COM> cem@ihlpf.ATT.COM (Malloy) writes: >>. Are suggesting that AT&T sue SEA for the exact same reason that >>.SEA sues PKWARE? All of the "LOOK AND FEEL" stuff is really getting >>.out of hand. Maybe IBM should sue everyone that makes a computer. >> >>No. Not IBM. Univac. The Univac 1 long pre-dated the first IBM >>computer. The company was started by the guys who build the Eniac. > >No, not Univac. The Gentlemen who brought you the Eniac, got at least >some of their ideas from a gentleman name Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff, at >Iowa State University ( then Iowa State College ) in 1941. Dr. Atanasoff >built the first electronic digital computer at Iowa State between 1939 >and 1941, with the help of graduate student Clifford Berry. See >Honeywell vs. Sperry, 1973. No one holds/held patents on the original >electronic digital computer. ( The University forgot to file the >patent papers during WWII ) I was always under the impression (I think I read it somewhere) that Harvard university built the first digital computer. It was able to add 2 8-digit numbers per second, crashed every 2 minutes, and used enough electricity to feed a city of about 25,000 people! In fact, a Harvard professor (Electrical Engineering, presumably) was so impressed with the computer, he exclaimed that by the end of the century, the world will have 50 such computers. Now I know why so few computer science big-names are from Harvard!! :-))
domo@riddle.UUCP (Dominic Dunlop) (09/20/88)
In article <5525@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> u-word!egs@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Eric Schnoebelen) writes: >> [Stuff about Univac inventing the digital computer deleted] >No, not Univac. The Gentlemen who brought you the Eniac, got at least >some of their ideas from a gentleman name Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff... >For more information about the above, there have been two book published >recently, one by the ISU Press, A biography of the ABC and the >subsequent lawsuits, and another by University of Michigan Press... Easier to assimilate and get hold of (if you've access to a library) is the August 1988 edition of Scientific American, which has a paper (or should that be article?) on the subject. (If not August, try July -- like Eric's books, my magazines are at home.) -- Dominic Dunlop domo@sphinx.co.uk domo@riddle.uucp