The Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC) replica project was conceived by scientists and engineers of the Research and Development Engineering Services Group at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory. The goal of the project was to build a replica of the ABC, the world’s first automatic electronic digital computer, constructed at Iowa State University from 1938 to 1939. The project was supported by the Iowa State University Computation Center and the Department of Computer Science and was approved in 1995.

The objective of the project was to build a full-scale, working replica that would resemble the original Atanasoff Berry Computer in appearance and function. It would also use as many identical parts as possible. It was decided early in the project that the use of modem technology or hardware in concealed spaces would not be allowed, which was challenging considering the limited amount of documentation and the fact that the original computer no longer existed.

The project was completed on schedule in 1997.