John Vincent Atanasoff (1903-1995), American physicist, born in Hamilton, New York, who has been claimed as the developer of certain basic techniques later used in the design of the first electronic digital computer, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). While teaching at Iowa State College, Atanasoff built a simple vacuum-tube computing device that he showed to several people, including one of the later builders of ENIAC, but he did not succeed in marketing his own device. A 1971 lawsuit by an electronics firm against a rival firm holding the patent on ENIAC principles, however—on the grounds that Atanasoff's ideas had been used without being credited—led to the invalidation of that patent in 1973.
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