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Konrad Zuse: Dreamer who created the first computer. Four computers by konrad zuse

Konrad Zuse: Dreamer who created the first computer. Four computers by konrad zuse

20.09.2019

Konrad Zuse (German Konrad Zuse; 22nd of June 1910 - December 18 1995 ) - German engineer, computer pioneer. He is best known as the creator of the first truly working programmable computer. computer (1941 ) And first high-level programming language (1945 ).

Zuse was born in Berlin (Germany) and lived for a long time with his parents in the north Saxony in the town Hoyerswerda (German Hoyerswerda). From childhood, the boy showed interest in designing. While still at school, he designed a working model of a coin-changing machine and created a city project for 37 million residents. And during his student years, he first came up with the idea of creating an automatic programmable calculator.

IN 1935 Zuse was educated as an engineer at the Technische Hochschule Berlin-Charlottenburg ( German ), which today is called Technical University of Berlin (German Technische Universität Berlin). Upon graduation, he went to work at the Heinkel aircraft factory in the city Dessau, however, after working for only a year, he quit, coming to grips with the creation of a programmable calculating machine. Having experimented with decimal number system, the young engineer preferred her binary. IN 1938 appeared the first working development of Zuse, named by him Z1. It was a binary mechanical calculator with an electrical drive and a limited ability to programming with help keyboards. The result of the calculations was displayed on the lamp panel. Built with my own money and money from friends, and mounted on a table in the living room of my parents' house, the "Z1" worked unreliably due to the lack of precision in the execution of the components. However, being an experimental model, it was not used for any practical purposes.

The Second World War made it impossible for Zuse to communicate with other enthusiasts of creating computer technology in Great Britain And United States of America. IN 1939 In the year Zuse was called up for military service, but managed to convince the army commanders of the need to give him the opportunity to continue his developments. IN 1940 he received the support of the Research Institute of Aerodynamics ( German ), who used his work to create managed missiles. Thanks to her, Zuse built a modified version of the calculator - Z2 based telephone relay. Unlike the Z1, the new machine read instructions perforated 35mm film. She, too, was a demonstration model and was not used for practical purposes. In the same year, Zuse organized a company Zuse Apparatebau for the production of programmable machines.

Satisfied with the functionality of the "Z2", in 1941 Zuse creates an already more advanced model - Z3, which today is considered by many to be the first real-life programmable computer. However, the programmability of this binary calculator, assembled, like the previous model, on the basis of telephone relays, was also limited. Despite the fact that the order of calculations could now be determined in advance, conditional jumps And cycles were absent. Nevertheless, Z3 was the first among Zuse's computers to have practical application and was used to design the wing of an aircraft.

All three cars, "Z1", "Z2" and "Z3", were destroyed during the bombing Berlin V 1944 year. And in the next 1945 year, and the company itself created by Zuse ceased to exist. A little earlier partially completed Z4 was loaded onto a cart and transported to a safe place in Bavarian village. It was for this computer that Zuse developed the world's first high-level programming language, which he called Plankalkül (German Plankalkul).

IN 1946 Zuse set up a commercial computer manufacturing company Zuse-Ingenieurburo Hopferau. Venture capital was received from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (German ETH Zurich) and companies IBM .

Three years later, in 1949 year, settling in the city Hünfelde, Zuse creates a company Zuse KG. In September 1950 year "Z4" was finally finished and put in ETH Zurich. At the time, it was the only working computer in continental Europe and the first computer in the world to be sold. In this "Z4" five months ahead of Mark I and ten UNIVAC. Zuse and his company built other computers, each of which began with a capital letter Z. The most famous machines Z11, sold to the optical industry and universities, and Z22- the first computer with memory on magnetic media.

In addition to general-purpose computers, Zuse built several specialized computers. So, calculators "S1" and "S2" were used to determine the exact dimensions of parts in aviation technology. The S2 machine, in addition to the calculator, also included measuring devices for measuring aircraft. The computer "L1", which remained in the form of an experimental sample, was intended by Zuse to solve logical problems.

TO 1967 company Zuse KG produced 251 completed computers, however, due to financial problems, it was sold to the company Siemens AG. Nevertheless, Zuse continued to conduct research in the field of computers and worked as a specialist consultant Siemens AG.

Zuse believed that the structure of the universe is similar to a network of interconnected computers. IN 1969 he publishes the book "Rechnender Raum" ("Computing space"), which in 1970 was translated into English by staff Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the title "Calculating Space".

IN 1987 -1989 years, despite suffering a heart attack, Zuse recreated his first computer Z1. The finished model had 30,000 components and cost 800,000. DM and demanded for its assembly the labor of 4 enthusiasts (including Zuse himself). The project was financed by the company Siemens AG along with five other companies.

Currently fully functioning computer model Z3 located in the "German Museum" of the city Munich, and the model of the calculator "Z1" was transferred to the "German Technical Museum" of the city Berlin. Today, the latter also hosts a special exhibition dedicated to Konrad Zuse and his work. The exhibition features twelve of his machines, original papers on the development of the Plankalkül language, and several paintings by Zuse.

Monument at Konrad Zuse's grave Bad Hersfelde

For his contributions and early successes in the field of automatic computation, independently proposing the use of binary and floating point arithmetic, and designing the first Germany and one of the world's first program-controlled computers in 1965 Zuse received the Harry M. Goode Memorial Award ( English. Harry M. Goode Memorial Award), medal and 2000 dollars from computer society.

IN 1985 Zuse became the first honorary member of the German "Computer Society", and with 1987 it started to take "Medal of Konrad Zuse", which today has become the most famous German reward in area informatics. IN 1995 -m for the work of a lifetime Zuse was awarded orders "Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany". And in 2003 -m on the channel ZDF he has been called the "greatest" living German.

After retiring, Zuse took up his favorite hobby, painting. Zuse died December 18 1995 V Hünfelde(Germany). Today, several cities in Germany have streets named after him.

Konrad Zuse[ˈkɔn.ʁatˈ ts uː.zə] ( June 22, 1910 Berlin - December 18, 1995 Hunfeld) was a German engineer and computer pioneer. His greatest achievement was the world "s first functional program-controlled computer, the Z3, in 1941 (the program was stored on a punched tape). In 1998 , the Z3 was shown to be Turing-complete. He received the Werner-von-Siemens-Ring in 1964 for the Z3.

Zuse also designed the first high level programming language, Plankalkul, first published in 1948 , although this was a theoretical contribution, since the language was not implemented in his lifetime and did not directly influence early languages. One of the inventors of ALGOL(Rutishauser) wrote: "The very first attempt to devise an algorithmic language was pursued in 1948 by K. Zuse. His notation was quite general, but the proposal never attained the consideration it deserved."

In addition to his technical work, Zuse founded the first computer startup company in 1946 . This company built the Z4, which became the second commercial computer, leased to ETH Zurich in 1950 . due to World War II, however, Zuse's work went largely unnoticed in the UK and the USA; possibly his first documented influence on a US company was IBM"s option on his patents in 1946. In the late 1960s, Zuse suggested the concept of a Calculating Space(a computation-based universe).

There is a replica of the Z3, as well as the Z4, in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

The Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin in Berlin has an exhibition devoted to Zuse. In it are twelve of his machines, including a replica of the Z1, some original documents, including the specifications of Plankalkül, and several of Zuse's paintings.

content

1 Pre-WWII work and the Z1

2 The WWII years; the Z2, Z3, and Z4

3 Use the entrepreneur

4 Calculating Space

5 awards

6 quotes

7 References

8 See also

9 External links

[ edit ] Pre-WWII work and the Z1

Born in Berlin, Germany, Zuse graduated in civil engineering from the Technische Hochschule Berlin-Charlottenburg in 1935. In his engineering studies, Zuse had to perform many routine calculations by hand, which he found mind-numbingly boring. This led him to dream about performing calculations by machine.

He started as a design engineer at the Henschel aircraft factory in Berlin-Schönefeld but resigned a year later to build a program driven/programmable machine. Working in his parents" apartment in 1936, his first attempt, called the Z1, was a binary electrically driven mechanical calculator with limited programmability, reading instructions from a punched tape. The Z1 never worked well, though, due to the lack of sufficiently precise parts. The Z1 and its original blueprints were destroyed during World War II.

Between 1987 and 1989, Zuse recreated the Z1, suffering a heart-attack midway through the project. It had 30,000 components, cost 800,000 DM, and required four individuals (including Zuse) to assemble it. Funding for this retrocomputing project was provided by Siemens and a consortium of five companies.

[ edit ] The WWII years; the Z2, Z3, and Z4

World War II made it impossible for Zuse and other German computer scientists to work with scientists in the UK and the USA, or even to stay in contact with them. In 1939, Zuse was called for military service but was able to convince the army to let him return to his computers. In 1940, he gained support from the Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt(AVA, Aerodynamic Research Institute), which used his work for the production of glide bombs. Zuse built the Z2, a revised version of the Z1, from telephone relays. The same year, he started a company, Zuse Apparatebau(Zuse Apparatus Engineering), to manufacture his machines.

Improving on the basic Z2 machine, he built the Z3 in 1941. It was a binary 64-bit floating point calculator featuring programmability with loops but without conditional jumps, with memory and a calculation unit based on telephone relays. The telephone relays used in his machines were largely collected from discarded stock. Despite the absence of conditional jumps, the Z3 was a Turing complete computer (ignoring the fact that no physical computer can be truly Turing complete because of limited storage size). However, Turing-completeness was never considered by Zuse (who had practical applications in mind) and only demonstrated in 1998 (see History of computing hardware).

Zuse never received the support that computer pioneers in Allied countries, such as Alan Turing, got. The Z3 was financed only partly by the DVL ( Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt, i.e. German Experimentation-Institution for Aviation), which wanted their extensive calculations automated. A request by his co-worker Helmut T. Schreyer (1912-1984) for government funding for an electronic successor to the Z3 was denied as "strategically unimportant". In 1937 Schreyer had advised Zuse to use vacuum tubes as switching elements, who at this time considered it a crazy idea (" Schnapsidee"in his own words).

Zuse's company (with the Z3) was destroyed in 1945 by an Allied attack. Fortunately, the partially finished, relay-based Z4 had been moved to a safe place earlier. Zuse designed the first high-level programming language, Plankalkul, from 1941 to 1945, although he did not publish it in its entirety until 1972. No compiler or interpreter was available for Plankalkül until a team from the Free University of Berlin implemented it in 2000.

Konrad Zuse married Gisela Brandes in January 1945 - employing a carriage, himself dressed in tailcoat and top hat and with Gisela in wedding veil, for Zuse attached importance to a noble ceremony. Their son Horst was born in November 1945.

[ edit ]Zuse the entrepreneur

In 1946 Zuse founded the world's first computer startup company: the Zuse-Ingenieurburo Hopferau. Venture capital was raised through ETH Zürich and an IBM option on Zuse's patents.

Zuse founded another company, Zuse KG , in 1949. Z4 was finished and delivered to the ETH Zurich, Switzerland in September 1950. At that time, it was the only working computer in continental Europe, and the second computer in the world to be sold, only beat by the binac. Other computers, all numbered with a leading Z, were built by Zuse and his company. notable are the Z11, which was sold to the optics industry and to universities, and the Z22, the first computer with a memory based on magnetic storage.

By 1967 Zuse KG had built a total of 251 computers. Due to financial problems, it was then sold to Siemens.

[ edit ] Calculating Space

In 1967 Zuse also suggested that the universe itself is running on a grid of computers ( digital physics); in 1969 he published the book Rechnender Raum(translated into English as Calculating Space ). This idea has attracted a lot of attention, since there is no physical evidence against Zuse's thesis. Edward Fredkin(1980s) Juergen Schmidhuber(1990s) Stephen Wolfram (A New Kind of Science ) and others have expanded on it.

Zuse received several awards for his work. After he retired, he focused on his hobby, painting. Zuse died on December 18, 1995 in Hunfeld, Germany, near Fulda.

From childhood, the boy showed interest in designing. While still at school, he designed a working model of a coin changer and created a project for a city of 37 million inhabitants. And during his student years, he first came up with the idea of creating an automatic programmable calculator.

Patent application sheet for Z1.

In 1938, the first working development of Zuse appeared, which he called Z1. It was an electrically powered binary mechanical calculator with limited keyboard programming. The result of calculations in the decimal system was displayed on the lamp panel.

Built with my own money and money from friends, and mounted on a table in the living room of my parents' house, the Z1 performed unreliably due to the lack of precision in the execution of its components. However, being an experimental model, it was not used for any practical purposes.

Professor Zuse in 1990 at the Z1 computer he recreated

A device for reading programs and data from an impromptu punched tape, which was used photographic film

In 1940, he received the support of the Research Institute for Aerodynamics (German: Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt), which used his work to create guided missiles. Thanks to her, Zuse built a modified version of the calculator - Z2 based on telephone relays. Unlike the Z1, the new machine read instructions from perforated 35mm film. She, too, was a demonstration model and was not used for practical purposes. In the same year, Zuse organized the Zuse Apparatebau company to produce programmable machines.

Satisfied with the functionality of the Z2, in 1941 Zuse created an already more advanced model - the Z3, which today is considered by many to be the first actually operating programmable computer. However, the programmability of this binary calculator, assembled, like the previous model, on the basis of telephone relays, was also limited. Despite the fact that the order of evaluation could now be determined in advance, there were no conditional jumps and loops. Nevertheless, Z3 was the first among Zuse's computers to have practical application and was used to design the wing of an aircraft.

Z3. It had a huge memory - 64 words of 22 bits each.

All three machines, Z1, Z2 and Z3, were destroyed during the bombing of Berlin in 1944. And in the next year, 1945, the company itself created by Zuse ceased to exist. A little earlier, the partially finished Z4 was loaded onto a cart and transported to a safe place in the Bavarian countryside. It was for this computer that Zuse developed the world's first high-level programming language, which he called Plankalkül (German: Plankalkül plan calculus).

Zuse described the possibilities of the Plankalkül language in a separate pamphlet. In the same place, he described the possible use of the language for sorting numbers and performing arithmetic operations. In addition, Zuse compiled 49 pages of programs on Plankalkül to evaluate chess positions. He later wrote that he was interested in testing Plankalkül's efficiency and versatility with regard to chess problems.

Working in isolation from other specialists in Europe and the United States has led to the fact that only a small part of his work has become known. The full work of Zuse was published only in 1972. And it is quite possible that if the Plankalkül language had become known earlier, the paths of development of computer technology and programming could have changed.

Zuse himself did not create an implementation for his language. The first compiler of the Plankalkül language (for modern computers) was created at the Free University of Berlin only in 2000, five years after the death of Konrad Zuse.

First Zuses Werkstatt office in Neukirchen, 2010

In 1946, Zuse organized the Zuse-Ingenieurbüro Hopferau (Zuse-Ingenieurbüro Hopferau), a commercial computer manufacturing company. Venture capital was received from ETH and IBM.

Three years later, in 1949, having settled in the city of Hünfeld, Zuse created the company Zuse KG. In September 1950 the Z4 was finally finished and delivered to ETH Zürich. At the time, it was the only working computer in continental Europe and the first computer in the world to be sold. In this, the Z4 was five months ahead of the Mark I and ten months ahead of the UNIVAC. Other computers were built by Zuse and his company, each of which began with a capital Z.

The best known machines are the Z11, which was sold to the optical industry and universities, and the Z22, the first computer with magnetic memory.

In addition to general purpose computers, Zuse built several specialized computers. So, calculators S1 and S2 were used to determine the exact dimensions of parts in aviation technology. Machine S2, in addition to the calculator, also included measuring devices for measuring aircraft. The L1 computer, which remained in the form of an experimental model, was intended for Zuse to solve logical problems.

By 1967, Zuse KG had delivered 251 computers, worth about DM 100 million, but due to financial problems, it was sold to Siemens AG. Nevertheless, Zuse continued to conduct research in the field of computers and worked as a specialist consultant for Siemens AG.

Zuse believed that the structure of the universe is similar to a network of interconnected computers. In 1969, he published the book "Computing Space" (German: Rechnender Raum), translated a year later by employees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1987-1989, despite suffering a heart attack, Zuse recreated his first Z1 computer. The finished model had 30,000 components, cost DM 800,000, and required 4 enthusiasts (including Zuse himself) to assemble it. The project was financed by Siemens AG along with five other companies.

Currently, a fully functioning model of the Z3 computer is in the "Deutsches Museum" in Munich, and a model of the Z1 calculator has been transferred to the German Technical Museum in Berlin. Today, the latter also hosts a special exhibition dedicated to Konrad Zuse and his work. The exhibition features twelve of his machines, original papers on the development of the Plankalkül language, and several paintings by Zuse.

Zuse received the Harry Hood Memorial Prize in 1965 for his contributions and early successes in the field of automatic computing, independently proposing the use of binary and floating point arithmetic, and designing Germany's first and one of the world's earliest program-controlled computers. . Harry H. Goode Memorial Award), medal, and $2,000 from the Computer Society.

In 1985, Zuse became the first honorary member of the German Society for Informatics, and since 1987 it began to award the Konrad Zuse Medal, which today has become the most famous German award in the field of computer science. In 1995, Zuse was awarded the Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his life's work. In 2003, he was named the "greatest" German living by the ZDF channel.

Politically, Zuse considered himself a socialist. Among other things, this was expressed in the desire to put computers at the service of socialist ideas. Within the framework of the “equivalent economy”, Zuse, together with Arno Peters, worked on creating the concept of a high-tech planned economy based on the management of powerful modern computers. In the process of developing this concept, Zuse introduced the term "computer socialism". The result of this work was the book “Computer Socialism. Conversations with Konrad Zuse (2000), co-authored.

After retiring, Zuse took up his favorite hobby - painting. Zuse died on December 18, 1995 in Hünfeld (Germany), at the age of 85. Today, several cities in Germany have streets and buildings named after him.

Original text taken from

Konrad Zuse is a German engineer and computer pioneer. He is best known as the creator of the first truly working programmable computer and the first high-level programming language. Years of life: 1910-1995.

Zuse was born in Berlin and for a long time lived with his parents in the north of Saxony in the town of Hoyerswerda.

In 1935, Zuse was educated as an engineer at the Berlin Higher Technical School in Charlottenburg, which today bears the name of the Technical University of Berlin. Upon graduation, he went to work at the Henschel aircraft plant in Schönefeld, however, after working for only a year, he quit, coming to grips with the creation of a programmable calculating machine. Having experimented with the decimal number system, the young engineer preferred binary to her. In 1938, the first working development of Zuse appeared, which he called Z1. It was an electrically powered binary mechanical calculator with limited keyboard programming. The result of calculations in the decimal system was displayed on the lamp panel. Built with my own money and the money of friends, and mounted on a table in the living room of my parents' house, the Z1 performed unreliably due to the lack of precision in the execution of its components. However, being an experimental model, it was not used for any practical purposes.

The Second World War made it impossible for Zuse to communicate with other computer enthusiasts in Great Britain and the United States of America. In 1939, Zuse was called up for military service, but managed to convince the army commanders of the need to give him the opportunity to continue his development. In 1940, he received support from the Research Institute of Aerodynamics, which used his work to develop guided missiles. Zuse built a modified version of the calculator - Z2 based on telephone relays. Unlike the Z1, the new machine read instructions from perforated 35mm film. She, too, was a demonstration model and was not used for practical purposes. In the same year, Zuse organized the Zuse Apparatebau company to produce programmable machines.

Plankalkül is the world's first high-level programming language, created by the German engineer Konrad Zuse in 1942. Translated into Russian, this name corresponds to the expression "planning calculus".

The language was developed as the main tool for programming the Z4 computer, but it was also suitable for working with other computers similar to it.

Plankalkül supported assignments, subroutine calls, conditional statements, iterative loops, floating point arithmetic, arrays, hierarchical data structures, assertions, exception handling, and many other very modern programming language features.

Zuse described the possibilities of the Plankalkül language in a separate pamphlet. In the same place, he described the possible use of the language for sorting numbers and performing arithmetic operations. In addition, Zuse compiled 49 pages of Plankalkül programs to evaluate chess positions. He later wrote that he was interested in testing Plankalkül's efficiency and versatility with regard to chess problems.

By 1967, Zuse KG had delivered 251 computers, worth about DM 100 million, but due to financial problems, it was sold to Siemens AG. Nevertheless, Zuse continued to conduct research in the field of computers, and worked as a specialist consultant for Siemens AG.

For his contributions and early successes in the field of automatic computation, independent proposal for the use of binary and floating point arithmetic, and design of Germany's first and one of the very first program-controlled computers in the world, in 1965 Zuse received the Harry Hood Memorial Prize, medal and $2,000 from the Computer Society.

The Second World War gave a powerful impetus to the development of technology and science. The military-industrial complex has always collected huge human, monetary and other resources. And the Nazis, in their obsession with world domination, were especially zealous in their inventions and scientific and technical innovations. Nevertheless, the history of the creation of the first programming computer began even before the war, with the usual desire of a German architect to simplify his life.

Konrad Zuse (1910-1995)

The German engineer and inventor of the world's first working programmable computer Konrad Zuse got into the world of information technology almost by accident. The future inventor was endowed with good abilities for fine arts, and also loved construction and design. Therefore, he entered the Berlin Technical University at the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering (1930-1935), where he became interested in mathematics and physics. While studying the construction of buildings and roads, Zuse encountered a serious problem. This type of construction required solving huge systems of linear equations that were very difficult to calculate with a slide rule or even a mechanical calculator of the day.
As Zuse recalled: “I was a student in civil engineering in Berlin. Berlin is a beautiful city that offers many opportunities for a young person to have a good time, for example with a pretty girl. But instead we were forced to carry out huge and terrible calculations.

For such miscalculations, engineers used special tables, where they wrote down the formulas for performing basic operations in the binary number system. It was then that Zuse had the idea to automate this process using a simple computing device. In other words, to invent the first programmable binary computer.

(photo of binary programmable computer Z1)

Through hardship to the stars

In 1936, Zuse completed the logic plan for his first computer, the V1 (from the German Versuchsmodell-1, meaning "experimental model"). In fact, the names of all machines were supposed to begin with V (from V1 to V4), but after World War II he changed the names to Z1-Z4 (the initial letter of the inventor's last name) to avoid unpleasant associations with V1-V4 military rockets.

(plan outline)

Zuse had no experience in the field of electronics, did not have sufficient knowledge in the field of mechanics and, of course, could not know the principles of operation of other computing devices. But these circumstances did not bother him. The young inventor immediately began to implement his idea. With the help of acquaintances, he raised a small amount of money for research and, together with a few friends, set to work. The development and assembly process took place in the Berlin apartment of his parents - the home living room turned into a real workshop. No specially equipped laboratories, no help from the government, ministries or universities. Konrad did everything himself, building his computer from almost nothing. On the other hand, perhaps it was this circumstance that gave him an advantage, since he was able to take a different look at the issues of machine arithmetic and find a new approach to solving certain problems. Later, the inventor wrote that, due to ignorance, he was not limited in his search for a system that was best for automatic calculations. After trying the decimal system, Zuse settled on binary.

(Zuse in progress)

The computing mechanisms that existed at that time were built using rotating elements and operated on values in the decimal number system. A feature of the Z1 was that it was engaged in the processing of numbers in the binary system and not relays were used for switching, but metal plates. It should be noted that these plates were cut by Zuse and his friends manually, with an ordinary jigsaw (2000 pieces!). The plates moved in a strictly defined direction. Displaced plates indicating the values of calculated quantities and mathematical operations moved a number of other plates that change the register of binary numbers and store the intermediate result. The data obtained allowed other transformations to be made. The simple sequential algorithm of calculations, which was actually set by the operator, was the prototype of the modern computer program. A notable feature of the first computer was a data entry keyboard with flashing lights to indicate results.

Work on the invention took more than two years. In 1938, the Z1 saw the light of day. It was huge, consisted of 20,000 parts. Electric motor with a power of 1 kW. provided a clock frequency of one Hertz (one cycle per second).

Key features of Z1

Implementation: thin metal plates
Frequency: 1 Hz
Computing block: floating point processing
Average calculation speed: multiplication - 10 seconds, addition - 5 seconds
Data input: keyboard, punched tape reader
Data output: lamp panel (decimal representation)
Memory: 64 words 22 bits
Weight: about 1000 kg

Zuse's first device did not have the ability to "store a program". There was also no conditional jump instruction. But what more could you want from a machine built from metal plates and having 64 words of memory? In addition, Zuse himself developed the theoretical foundations for his computers. He was familiar with Leibniz's binary digital system. But had no idea about George Boole's algebra. He had to study the mathematical logic of many eminent scientists in order to develop his own system, calling the notation "Conditional Combinatorial" (Bedingungskombinatorik).

(working room)

Zuz's mechanical device was of great scientific value, proving the possibility of creating software computers that work with binary code. But the reliability of the car left much to be desired. The device constantly broke due to the poor quality of the equipment. There was a problem with the processor's memory timing, which is required to prevent excessive mechanical stress on moving parts. But the architecture of the invention seemed quite successful and prompted Zuse to consider other types of technologies.

Further work on the machine was strongly influenced by Zuse's friend, electronic engineer Helmut Schreer. He appreciated the development and proposed to improve it by replacing the plates with vacuum tubes. And when creating a new model, keep the logical principles of the previous one in it, allowing operators to perform mathematical operations with decimal numbers.

In 1938, Zuse and Schreer gave a demonstration of electronic circuits at the University of Berlin, talking in detail about building an electronic computer. But as soon as they mentioned that such a device would require about 2000 radio tubes and several thousand incandescent lamps, they were almost ridiculed. University scientists classified the venture as a fantasy of two dreamers. The fact is that the largest electronic devices of that time consisted of only a few hundred vacuum tubes.
But the criticism of the professors did not affect the decision of the friends to fulfill their plans and assemble a new model.

(friends scientists Zuse and Schreer)

In an attempt to secure funding, Zuse attempted to secure a contract with former mechanical calculator maker Kurt Pannke. To which he received a polite refusal. Pannke expressed his confidence that everything possible had already been invented in the field of computers. However, the former calculator manufacturer agreed to visit Zuse's workshop and was so impressed with his work that he decided to give the inventor seven thousand Reichsmarks.

The pursuit of excellence

The outbreak of World War II put an end to joint research, Zuse was drafted into the Nazi army. He spent less than six months there. Thanks to the petition of influential engineers and scientists, in 1940 Zuse was demobilized to Berlin, where he became a member of the Nazi scientific elite.

Work on the creation of a relay electronic computer resumed. Schreer again offered his services. Scientists turned to the military leadership for financial support, offering to develop a modern device for the German air force. Such a machine could quickly process complex calculations, thereby increasing the effectiveness of tactical aviation. According to preliminary estimates of scientists, the invention of such a device would take about two years. But the military refused. The leadership of the Wehrmacht was convinced that in such a period Nazi Germany would already achieve world domination.

Without losing hope, the scientists turned to the directors of the Henschel aircraft factory in Berlin, which produced tactical bombers. And finally received approval, the plant management seized the opportunity to use computer technology in the process of creating military equipment. Zuse was given a dedicated department with the best electronic engineers in the company. And already at the end of 1940, Z2 was put into operation. The new computer was equipped with a digital processor based on relays and vacuum tubes. It automatically calculated a number of parameters of the geometry of the stabilizers of aircraft bombs, converted their analog value into a binary number system, calculating the necessary data using formulas previously entered by the operator, and gave the finished result in the form of decimal numbers. The results were sent directly to the production shop.

In the same year, Zuse began the development of the Z3, a machine entirely based on relays, but with a logical structure from the Z1 and Z2. It was ready for operation in 1941, 4 years before the development of American scientists - the electronic digital computer ENIAC.

The Z3 programmable computer was created on the basis of electronic relays (600 for the arithmetic unit, 1400 for the memory and 400 for the control unit). In all other aspects it resembled Z1 and Z2: binary system, floating point numbers, arithmetic unit with two 22-bit registers, control via 8 channel tapes (i.e. the instruction consists of 8 bits). Each of the words could be placed into the computer's memory in one clock cycle. The total total memory reached 64 words of 22 bits. It was this machine that first applied the modern principle of address memory allocation, when each 22-bit word can be placed in memory or retrieved from it with the PRz and PSz commands (z is the corresponding RAM register with addresses from 1 to 64). The arithmetic module of the computer was made up of parallel adders, which were used to process logarithmic expressions and floating point numbers.

Zuse developed his own set of instructions, which included about ten basic and several dozen additional commands. It was a real programming language used to set complex algorithms for calculations. So Zuse is also credited with the creation of the first high-level programming language - Plankalkül (in German Plankalkül - “plan calculus”). Its characteristic features were: free portability (independence of the architecture and instruction set of the machine), conditional statements (except ELSE), loops, subroutines, lack of recursion, working with arrays and subarrays, as well as complex syntax

In December 1941, the Z3 entered service and was immediately adopted by military aircraft manufacturers. It was with the help of the Z3 that the aerodynamic and ballistic characteristics of the first German cruise missiles were calculated.

Following the successful introduction of the Z3 into the military industry, Zuse signed a contract with the German Air Force Research and Development Office (DIV) to design a new generation of electric computers.

(Zuse in front of Z3)

Long awaited Z4

The new model was very similar to the Z3, incorporating all of Zuse's improved designs. This computer included elements: 2500 relays, 21 step relays. It already had 1024 memory registers for storing 22-bit words. With a more powerful processor, the speed of converting binary numbers has increased. Z4 had a device for preparing the program. He also knew how to avoid calculating incorrect results. The power consumption of the machine was 4 kW.

The creation of a new computer took three years and by December 1944 the project was coming to an end. When working on the Z4, the inventor's main goal was to build a prototype machine that could be produced by the thousands in the future. But the lack of the necessary materials and the difficult situation in the country (the height of hostilities) made this task almost impossible. During one of the air raids on Berlin, the first copy of the Z3 was completely destroyed, and when the Soviet army entered the German capital in May 1945, Zuse was forced to flee with his family to Bavaria. With him, of course, he took the already assembled Z4 computer. In the Bavarian Alps, he hid the car until calmer times.

Key Features of Z4

Implementation: Relay, memory - metal plates
Frequency: 30 Hz
Computing block: processing of floating point numbers, machine word length - 32 bits
Average calculation speed: 0.4 seconds for addition, 0.3 seconds for multiplication
Average calculation speed: 11 multiplications per second
Data input: decimal keypad, punched tape reader
Data output: Mercedes typewriter
Memory: 64 words 22 bits
Weight: about 1000 kg

(computer Z4)

In 1948, Zuse contacted Professor Eduard Stiefel, who recognized the Z4 as being suitable for scientific calculations. Despite the machine's slightly old-fashioned technology, Stiefel was impressed by the ease of programming and the power of the arithmetic unit with its exception handling capability.

Encouraged by the success, Zuse created his own company, Zuse KG. In fact, it was the world's first commercial company dedicated exclusively to the development and production of computer technology for aviation and the optical industry, university laboratories. The company launched the production of commercial computers popular in Germany in the 50s (Z5, Z11, Z22 and Z23). The Zuse company created the first computer with memory on magnetic media Z22.

(computer with memory on magnetic media Z22)

Despite his engineering talent and diligence, Zuse lagged behind his American competitors. Post-war Germany was not the best place to innovate in the electronic future. All government funds went to the restoration of the country. And Zuse did not have the infrastructure necessary for further development. He could not learn about new devices and programs in time.

And already in the 60s, the European market was actively filled with American electronic computers, which gradually replaced Zuse's computers. In 1962, the company was sold to Brown Boveri and Co, and later became part of the Siemens Corporation.

Konrad Zuse called himself an apolitical person. He considered the development of computer technology in Germany to be his life's work and regretted that he had not realized his dream - to create a portable personal computer for business people. In this, American developers were ahead of him. After the sale of the company, he took up his old passion - painting. And he even painted several portraits of famous people in the world of computer technology. One of them was Bill Gates, whom Vuse met at the exhibition.

(Zuse at his second favorite activity)

Konrad Zuse died in 1995 in the city of Hühnfeld (Germany), having lived to the age of eighty-five.

The original Z1, Z2 and Z3 did not survive to this day, they were destroyed during the bombing of Berlin in 1945. But Zuse managed to save the Z4 computer, which is located in the home of the inventor in the Technical Museum in Berlin.

The California Museum of Computer History in Mountain View posthumously named Konrad Zuse as the pre-eminent inventor of the first fully automated, program-controlled computer.

All three vehicles, Z1, Z2 and Z3, were destroyed during the bombing of Berlin in 1944. And in the next year, 1945, the company itself created by Zuse ceased to exist. A little earlier, the partially completed was loaded onto a cart and transported to a safe place in the Bavarian countryside. It was for this computer that Zuse developed the world's first high-level programming language, which he called Plankalkül. Plankalkül calculus of plans ).

Politically, Zuse considered himself a socialist. Among other things, this was expressed in the desire to put computers at the service of socialist ideas. Within the framework of the "equivalent economy", Zuse, together with Arno Peters, worked on creating the concept of a high-tech planned economy based on the management of powerful modern computers. In the process of developing this concept, Zuse introduced the term "computer socialism". The result of this work was the book “Computer Socialism. Conversations with Konrad Zuse (2000), co-authored.

After retiring, Zuse took up his favorite hobby, painting. Zuse died on December 18, 1995 in Hünfeld (Germany), at the age of 85. Today, several cities in Germany have streets and buildings named after him, as well as a school in Hünfeld.

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Notes

Literature

Jurgen Alex. Konrad Zuse: der Vater des Computers / Alex J., Flessner H., Mons W. u. a.. - Parzeller, 2000. - 263 S. - ISBN 3-7900-0317-4 , KNO-NR: 08 90 94 10.(German)
Raúl Rojas, Friedrich Ludwig Bauer, Konrad Zuse. Die Rechenmaschinen von Konrad Zuse. - Berlin: Springer, 1998. - Bd. VII. - 221 S. - ISBN 3-540-63461-4 , KNO-NR: 07 36 04 31.(German)
Zuse K. Der Computer mein Leben.(German)
The Computer - My Life. - Springer Verlag, 1993. - ISBN 0-387-56453-5.(English)
Meet: Computer = Understanding computers: Computer basics: Input / Output / Per. from English. K. G. Bataeva; Ed. and with prev. V. M. Kurochkina. - M .: Mir, 1989. - 240 p. - ISBN 5-03-001147-1.
Computer language = Understanding computers: Software: Computer Languages / Per. from English. S. E. Morkovin and V. M. Khodukina; Ed. and with prev. V. M. Kurochkina. - M .: Mir, 1989. - 240 p. - ISBN 5-03-001148-X.
Wilfried de Beauclair. Vom Zahnrad zum Chip: eine Bildgeschichte der Datenverarbeitung. - Balje: Superbrain-Verlag, 2005. - Bd. 3. - ISBN 3-00-013791-2.

An excerpt characterizing Konrad Zuse

“No, he’s not a fool,” Natasha said offendedly and seriously.
- Well, what do you want? You are all in love these days. Well, in love, so marry him! said the Countess, laughing angrily. - With God blessing!
“No, mother, I am not in love with him, I must not be in love with him.
“Well, just tell him that.
- Mom, are you angry? Don't be angry, my dear, what am I to blame for?
“No, what is it, my friend? If you want, I'll go and tell him, - said the countess, smiling.
- No, I myself, just teach. Everything is easy for you,” she added, answering her smile. “And if you saw how he told me this!” After all, I know that he did not want to say this, but he accidentally said it.
- Well, you still have to refuse.
- No, you don't have to. I feel so sorry for him! He is so cute.
Well, take the offer. And then it’s time to get married, ”the mother said angrily and mockingly.
“No, Mom, I feel so sorry for him. I don't know how I will say.
“Yes, you don’t have anything to say, I’ll say it myself,” said the countess, indignant at the fact that they dared to look at this little Natasha as a big one.
“No, no way, I’m on my own, and you listen at the door,” and Natasha ran through the living room into the hall, where Denisov was sitting on the same chair, at the clavichord, covering his face with his hands. He jumped up at the sound of her light footsteps.
- Natalie, - he said, approaching her with quick steps, - decide my fate. She is in your hands!
"Vasily Dmitritch, I'm so sorry for you!... No, but you're so nice... but don't... it's... but I'll always love you like that."
Denisov bent over her hand, and she heard strange sounds, incomprehensible to her. She kissed him on his black, matted, curly head. At that moment, the hasty noise of the countess's dress was heard. She approached them.
“Vasily Dmitritch, I thank you for the honor,” said the countess in an embarrassed voice, but which seemed strict to Denisov, “but my daughter is so young, and I thought that you, as a friend of my son, would first turn to me. In that case, you would not put me in the need for a refusal.
“Mr. Athena,” Denisov said with downcast eyes and a guilty look, he wanted to say something else and stumbled.
Natasha could not calmly see him so miserable. She began to sob loudly.
“Mr. Athena, I am guilty before you,” Denisov continued in a broken voice, “but know that I idolize your daughter and your entire family so much that I will give two lives ...” He looked at the countess and, noticing her stern face ... “Well, goodbye, Mrs. Athena,” he said, kissed her hand and, without looking at Natasha, left the room with quick, decisive steps.

The next day, Rostov saw off Denisov, who did not want to stay in Moscow for another day. Denisov was seen off at the gypsies by all his Moscow friends, and he did not remember how he was put into the sledge and how the first three stations were taken.
After Denisov's departure, Rostov, waiting for the money that the old count could not suddenly collect, spent another two weeks in Moscow, without leaving home, and mainly in the young ladies' room.
Sonya was more tender and devoted to him than before. She seemed to want to show him that his loss was a feat for which she now loves him all the more; but Nicholas now considered himself unworthy of her.
He filled the girls' albums with poems and notes, and without saying goodbye to any of his acquaintances, finally sending all 43 thousand and receiving Dolokhov's receipt, he left at the end of November to catch up with the regiment, which was already in Poland.

After his explanation with his wife, Pierre went to Petersburg. There were no horses at the station in Torzhok, or the caretaker did not want them. Pierre had to wait. Without undressing, he lay down on a leather sofa in front of a round table, put his big feet in warm boots on this table and thought.
- Will you order the suitcases to be brought in? Make a bed, would you like some tea? the valet asked.
Pierre did not answer, because he did not hear or see anything. He had been thinking at the last station and still kept thinking about the same thing - about such an important thing that he did not pay any attention to what was going on around him. He was not only not interested in the fact that he would arrive later or earlier in Petersburg, or whether he would or would not have a place to rest at this station, but all the same, in comparison with the thoughts that occupied him now, whether he would stay for a few hours or a lifetime at that station.
The caretaker, caretaker, valet, a woman with Torzhkov sewing came into the room, offering their services. Pierre, without changing his position of his raised legs, looked at them through his glasses, and did not understand what they might need and how they could all live without resolving the issues that occupied him. And he was occupied with the same questions from the very day he returned from Sokolniki after the duel and spent the first, painful, sleepless night; only now, in the solitude of the journey, they took possession of it with particular force. Whatever he began to think about, he returned to the same questions that he could not solve, and could not stop asking himself. It was as if the main screw on which his whole life rested was curled up in his head. The screw did not go further in, did not go out, but spun, without grabbing anything, all on the same groove, and it was impossible to stop turning it.
The superintendent entered and humbly began to ask his excellency to wait only two hours, after which he would give courier for his excellency (what will be, will be). The caretaker obviously lied and only wanted to get extra money from the traveler. “Was it bad or good?” Pierre asked himself. “It’s good for me, it’s bad for another passing by, but it’s inevitable for him, because he has nothing to eat: he said that an officer beat him up for this. And the officer nailed him because he had to go sooner. And I shot at Dolokhov because I considered myself insulted, and Louis XVI was executed because he was considered a criminal, and a year later those who executed him were killed, also for something. What's wrong? What well? What should you love, what should you hate? Why live, and what am I? What is life, what is death? What power governs everything?” he asked himself. And there was no answer to any of these questions, except for one, not a logical answer, not at all to these questions. This answer was: “If you die, everything will end. You will die and you will know everything, or you will stop asking.” But it was also scary to die.
The Torzhkovskaya tradeswoman offered her goods in a shrill voice, and especially goat shoes. “I have hundreds of rubles, which I have nowhere to put, and she stands in a torn fur coat and looks timidly at me,” thought Pierre. And why do we need this money? Precisely for one hair, this money can add to her happiness, peace of mind? Can anything in the world make her and me less subject to evil and death? Death, which will end everything and which must come today or tomorrow - all the same in a moment, in comparison with eternity. And he again pressed the screw, which was not grasping anything, and the screw was still spinning in the same place.
His servant handed him a book of the novel, cut in half, in letters m me Suza. [Madame Susa.] He began to read about the suffering and virtuous struggle of some Amelie de Mansfeld. [to Amalia Mansfeld.] And why did she fight against her seducer, he thought, when she loved him? God could not put into her soul aspirations contrary to His will. My ex-wife didn't fight and maybe she was right. Nothing has been found, Pierre told himself again, nothing has been invented. We can only know that we know nothing. And this is the highest degree of human wisdom.”
Everything in him and around him seemed to him confused, meaningless and disgusting. But in this very disgust for everything around him, Pierre found a kind of annoying pleasure.
“I dare to ask Your Excellency to make room for a little one, here for them,” said the caretaker, entering the room and leading another, stopped for lack of horses, passing by. The passer-by was a squat, broad-boned, yellow, wrinkled old man with overhanging gray eyebrows over shining, indefinite grayish eyes.
Pierre took his feet off the table, got up and lay down on the bed prepared for him, occasionally glancing at the newcomer, who, with a gloomy tired look, without looking at Pierre, was heavily undressing with the help of a servant. Left in a shabby, covered sheepskin coat and felted boots on thin, bony legs, the traveler sat down on the sofa, leaning his very large and wide at the temples, short-cropped head against the back and looked at Bezukhy. The strict, intelligent and penetrating expression of this look struck Pierre. He wanted to speak to the traveler, but when he was about to turn to him with a question about the road, the traveler had already closed his eyes and folded his wrinkled old hands, on the finger of one of which was a large cast-iron ring with the image of Adam's head, sat motionless, or resting, or about something thoughtfully and calmly thinking, as it seemed to Pierre. The passerby's servant was all covered with wrinkles, also a yellow old man, without a mustache and beard, which apparently had not been shaved off, and had never grown with him. The agile old servant was dismantling the cellar, preparing a tea table, and brought a boiling samovar. When everything was ready, the traveler opened his eyes, moved closer to the table and poured himself one glass of tea, poured another for the beardless old man and served it to him. Pierre began to feel anxiety and the need, and even the inevitability of entering into a conversation with this traveler.
The servant brought back his empty, overturned glass with a half-bitten piece of sugar and asked if he needed anything.
- Nothing. Give me the book, said the passerby. The servant handed over a book, which seemed to Pierre spiritual, and the traveler deepened in reading. Pierre looked at him. Suddenly the passer-by put down the book, laid it down, closed it, and, again closing his eyes and leaning on his back, sat down in his former position. Pierre looked at him and did not have time to turn away, when the old man opened his eyes and fixed his firm and stern gaze straight into Pierre's face.
Pierre felt embarrassed and wanted to deviate from this look, but the brilliant, aged eyes irresistibly attracted him to him.

“I have the pleasure of talking to Count Bezukhy, if I am not mistaken,” said the passerby slowly and loudly. Pierre silently, questioningly looked through his glasses at his interlocutor.
“I heard about you,” continued the traveler, “and about the misfortune that befell you, my lord. - He seemed to emphasize the last word, as if he said: “yes, misfortune, whatever you call it, I know that what happened to you in Moscow was a misfortune.” “I am very sorry about that, my lord.
Pierre blushed and, hastily lowering his legs from the bed, bent down to the old man, smiling unnaturally and timidly.
“I did not mention this to you out of curiosity, my lord, but for more important reasons. He paused, without letting Pierre out of his sight, and moved on the sofa, inviting Pierre to sit down beside him with this gesture. It was unpleasant for Pierre to enter into a conversation with this old man, but, involuntarily submitting to him, he came up and sat down beside him.
“You are unhappy, my lord,” he continued. You are young, I am old. I would like to help you to the best of my ability.
“Oh, yes,” Pierre said with an unnatural smile. - I am very grateful to you ... Where do you want to pass from? - The face of the traveler was not affectionate, even cold and stern, but despite the fact, both the speech and the face of the new acquaintance had an irresistibly attractive effect on Pierre.
“But if for some reason you find it unpleasant to talk to me,” said the old man, “then you say so, my lord. And he suddenly smiled unexpectedly, a fatherly gentle smile.
“Oh no, not at all, on the contrary, I am very glad to meet you,” said Pierre, and, looking once more at the hands of a new acquaintance, he examined the ring closer. He saw Adam's head on it, the sign of Freemasonry.
“Let me ask,” he said. - Are you a Mason?
- Yes, I belong to the brotherhood of free masons, said the traveler, looking deeper and deeper into Pierre's eyes. - And on my own behalf and on their behalf, I extend my brotherly hand to you.

Konrad Zuse: Dreamer who created the first computer. Four computers by konrad zuse

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An excerpt characterizing Konrad Zuse