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From: William.Lott@CS.CMU.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: What were real machines which helped Turing?
Message-ID: <obZ_UTW00jei02kHQa@cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 16 Jan 91 19:23:11 GMT
References: <12623@hubcap.clemson.edu>,
	<1991Jan15.213202.29370@omews63.intel.com>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 23
In-Reply-To: <1991Jan15.213202.29370@omews63.intel.com>

colwell@omews1.intel.com (Robert Colwell) writes:
> In article <12623@hubcap.clemson.edu> steve@hubcap.clemson.edu ("Steve" Steven\
> son) writes:
> >In a class I'm teaching, I was trying to get the students into the historical
> >context in the 1920-1940 time frame. The Atansoff computer was probably
> >known to Alan Turing. Did this help in his formulation? Did he ever say where
> >the ideas came from? What other machines were there then that might have
> >contributed to his formulation?-- 
> 
> Tell 'em to read "Alan Turing: The Enigma", a good biography of Turing.

One should also read "Atansoff, the Forgotten Father of the Computer"
(or something like that) to make sure credit is attributed where
credit is due.  Or at least to become aware that there is some
disagreement about where credit is due.

-William Lott

ps: Apparently Atansoff rented a room from my great grandparents.  If
I'm remembering stories I've heard correctly, my grandmother once was
trapped in the bathroom in only her underware because Atansoff was
patiently waiting in the hall for his turn.  (I know this doesn't have
much to do with Architecture, but I found it amusing.)