(Germany) and lived for a long time with his parents in the north of Saxony in the town of Hoyerswerda (German). Hoyerswerda). From childhood, the boy showed interest in design. While still at school, he designed a working model of a coin-changing machine and created a project for a city for 37 million inhabitants. And during his student years, he first came up with the idea of creating an automatic programmable computer.
Zuse believed that the structure of the universe was like a network of interconnected computers. In this year he publishes the book “Rechnender Raum” (“Computing Space”), which was translated into English by collaborators in 2010 under the title “Calculating Space”.
In - years, despite suffering a heart attack, Zuse recreated his first computer “Z1”. The finished model consisted of 30 thousand components, cost 800 thousand German marks and required the labor of 4 enthusiasts (including Zuse himself) for its assembly. Funding for the project was provided by Siemens AG along with five other companies.
Currently, a fully functioning model of the “Z3” computer is located in the “German Museum” of the city of Munich, and a model of the “Z1” computer has been transferred to the German Technical Museum in Berlin. Today, the latter also hosts a special exhibition dedicated to Conrad Zuse and his works. The exhibition features twelve of his machines, original documents on the development of the Plankalküll language and several paintings by Zuse.
For his contributions and early successes in the field of automatic computing, his independent proposal for the use of binary and floating-point arithmetic, and the design of Germany's first and one of the world's very first program-controlled computers, Zuse received the Harry M. Goode Memorial Prize in 2010. English Harry M. Goode Memorial Award), medal and $2,000 from "Computer Society".
In the year Zuse became the first honorary member of the German "Informatics Society", and from there it began to award the “Konrad Zuse Medal,” which today has become the most famous German award in the field of computer science. For his life's work, Zuse was awarded the Order of the Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. And in the ZDF channel he was called the “greatest” living German.
After retiring, Zuse took up his favorite hobby - painting. Zuse died on December 18 in Hünfeld (Germany). Today, several cities in Germany have streets named after him.
Literature
- Konrad Zuse: Der Vater des Computers./ Jürgen Alex, Hermann Flessner, Wilhelm Mons u. a. - Parzeller, . - 264 S(German). ISBN 3-7900-0317-4, KNO-NR: 08 90 94 10
- Die Rechenmaschinen von Konrad Zuse/Hrsg. v. Raul Rojas. - Berlin: Springer, . - VII, 221 S(German). ISBN 3-540-63461-4, KNO-NR: 07 36 04 31
- Der Computer mein Leben./ Konrad Zuse(German).
- The Computer - My Life- Springer Verlag (August) . ISBN 0-387-56453-5
- Meet the computer = Understanding computers: Computer basics: Input/Output; Per. from English K. G. Bataeva; Ed. and from before V. M. Kurochkina - Moscow: World, . - 240 pp., ill. ISBN 5-03-001147-1 (Russian) .
- Computer language = Understanding computers: Software: Computer Languages; Per. from English S. E. Morkovina and V. M. Khodukina; Ed. and from before V. M. Kurochkina - Moscow: World, . - 240 pp., ill. ISBN 5-03-001148-X (Russian) .
Links
- Wikimedia Commons has media related to this topic Konrad Zuse
- Biography (English)
- Brief biography in the online virtual museum LeMO (German)
- Konrad Zuse and his calculators on the website of his son, Hornst Zuse at the Technical University of Berlin (German)
- Konrad Zuse Internet Archive
- Technical University of Berlin (German) (English)
- The life and works of Konrad Zuse ( (eng.)
- Konrad Zuse (English)
- Konrad Zuse, creator of the first programmable computer
- Zuse's Theses on Digital Physics and the Computational Universe
- Information about the Konrad Zuse Museum in Hoyerswerda (German) (English)
Nowadays you won’t surprise anyone with a computer. A common home appliance, such as a TV or telephone. Apparently, in a few years these three devices will merge into one.
This will bring joy to my beloved niece Natalie! It's hard for her now. It's not easy to chat with friends on Facebook, talk to other friends on your cell phone, and look at the TV screen at the same time.
When I once told her that in my day computers were the size of a room, or at most a desk, she looked at me incredulously. I suspect that she secretly believes that the first computer was created by the great Steve Jobs. He created it from the dust of the earth, breathed life into it and commanded: “Be fruitful and multiply.”
Name Steve Jobs (1955 -2011) almost everyone knows. The names of other people who have done no less for the computerization of the world are almost unknown to the general public. In the summer, my niece and I watched the opening of the Olympics in London. The British demonstrated their country's contribution to world civilization. When the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, appeared on stage, my niece asked who this man was. “Inventor of the Internet,” I answered her and read surprise in her eyes. Was the Internet (in the form she was used to) invented and invented only recently?
Yes, my dear Natalie, I remember how the Earth was formless and empty, because there was no Internet on it. I will say more, just sixty years ago the great-great-grandfather of your laptop was born. He was born in Germany and had the strange name Z-1. By the name of the creator, Konrad Zuse (1910 - 1995).
Konrad Zuse fell ill with invention as a child. He came up with his first invention, a machine for changing coins, when he was a schoolboy. The idea of creating an automatic computer that works according to a given program came to Zuse while he was studying at the Berlin Higher Technical School in Charlottenburg. I think that many who studied at a technical school and did numerous calculations have had the idea of making their work easier more than once. In 1973, my classmate Vitya Bandurkin even bought a Felix adding machine with his own money at a thrift store to perform calculations. There were no electronic calculators yet, although electronic computers already existed. Largely thanks to the dedication and hard work of Konrad Zuse
After completing the course in 1935, he became an engineer at the Henschel aviation company, which was located in the Berlin suburb of Schönefeld. Here the young engineer was bombarded with aerodynamic calculations. This further strengthened the idea of the need to create an automatic computer. After working at the plant for only a year, Conrad quit his job in order to begin designing the car of his dreams.
In 1938 the first computer was built. In fact, it had everything that makes a computer a computer. Zuse decided to carry out calculations in the binary system, which made it possible to use as the simplest computing element not a gear with ten teeth, as in an adding machine, but a mechanical switch with only two positions: on and off. It was simpler and therefore more reliable. Zuse's computer had a separate memory block and a panel from which data was entered. Data was also entered from punched tape, which was 35 mm film. K. Zuse personally punched holes in it. This unit weighed 500 kilograms, and performed one multiplication operation in five seconds. Slightly faster than a human! The main achievement could be considered that the Z-1 worked. Not reliable, but it worked!
In 1939, World War II began, and K. Zuse was mobilized into the army. True, he served for several months, after which he was able to convince the military authorities of the need to create computers for automatically performing calculations in aerodynamics, aircraft construction and artillery. That same year, he produced a second model of his computing device, the Z-2. It can be considered a working prototype of a computer. The element base of the Z-2 were several thousand decommissioned telephone relays.
The first fully functional programmable computer was the next model, the Z-3. Zuse demonstrated it in Berlin on May 12, 1941. It was a success, it was a breakthrough! Similar American cars, Mark I and ENIAC, appeared only three years later.
But no one in warring Germany needed a programmable computer. K. Zuse was able to adapt it for the production of aerodynamic calculations at the Henschel company, but when he started talking about the fact that if vacuum tubes were used instead of relays, the speed of calculations would seriously increase, none of the generals was interested in this. Things were such at the front that one could only hope for some kind of miracle weapon. Which, fortunately for humanity, Germany did not have.
The Z-3 computer was destroyed during a bombing in 1944. The tireless K. Zuse set about creating the fourth model. He was counting on mass production, but the war was drawing to a close, the Allies were bombing Germany mercilessly, and the half-finished Z-4 had to be taken to the small Bavarian town of Hinterstein and hidden in a barn.
In 1948, the Z-4 computer was finally built. Note, at the personal expense of K. Zuse. To save money, many of its metal parts were made from American tin cans, of which there were many in Germany at that time.
This computer finally found a buyer, ETH Zurich. The Z-4 was one of the few computers in existence at that time and the first computer in the world to be sold. He worked in Zurich until 1954, and then for another five years in France. Long-lived!
Nowadays, it’s hard to believe that in the early 1950s there were only two computers operating in Europe. One of them was Konrad Zuse's Z-4, and the other was MESM, created in the USSR Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev (1902 - 1974).
Useful links:
- .Vasiliev. Four computers by Konrad Zuse
- Article about K. Zuse on Wikipedia
- Babbage's Heirs. About the creators of the first computers.
All three vehicles, Z1, Z2 and Z3, were destroyed in the 1944 Berlin bombing. And the next year, 1945, the company itself, created by Zuse, ceased to exist. A little earlier, the partially completed one was loaded onto a cart and transported to a safe place in a Bavarian village. It was for this computer that Zuse developed the world's first high-level programming language, which he called Plankalküll (German). Plankalkül calculation of plans ).
In 1985, Zuse became the first honorary member of the German Society for Informatics, and in 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 Order of the Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his life's work. In 2003, he was named the "greatest" living German by ZDF.
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 to create the concept of a high-tech planned economy based on the management of powerful modern computers. In the process of developing this concept, Zuse coined the term “computer socialism”. The result of this work was the book “Computer Socialism. Conversations with Konrad Zuse" (2000), co-published.
After his retirement, 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
- Jürgen 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 / Transl. from English K. G. Bataeva; Ed. and from before V. M. Kurochkina. - M.: Mir, 1989. - 240 p. - ISBN 5-03-001147-1.
- Computer language = Understanding computers: Software: Computer Languages / Transl. from English S. E. Morkovina and V. M. Khodukina; Ed. and from before 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.
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Excerpt characterizing Zuse, Conrad
“No, he’s not a fool,” Natasha said offendedly and seriously.- Well, what do you want? You are all in love these days. Well, you’re in love, so marry him! – the countess said, laughing angrily. - With God blessing!
- No, mom, I’m not in love with him, I must not be in love with him.
- Well, tell him so.
- Mom, are you angry? You’re not angry, my dear, what’s my fault?
- No, what about it, my friend? If you want, I’ll go and tell him,” said the countess, smiling.
- No, I’ll do it myself, just teach me. Everything is easy for you,” she added, responding to her smile. - If only you could see how he told me this! After all, I know that he didn’t mean to say this, but he said it by accident.
- Well, you still have to refuse.
- No, don't. I feel so sorry for him! He is so cute.
- Well, then accept 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'll say it.
“You don’t have anything to say, I’ll say it myself,” said the countess, indignant that they dared to look at this little Natasha as if she were big.
“No, no way, I myself, and you listen at the door,” and Natasha ran through the living room into the hall, where Denisov was sitting on the same chair, by the clavichord, covering his face with his hands. He jumped up at the sound of her light steps.
“Natalie,” he said, approaching her with quick steps, “decide my fate.” It's in your hands!
- Vasily Dmitrich, I feel so sorry for you!... No, but you are so nice... but don’t... this... otherwise I will always love you.
Denisov bent over her hand, and she heard strange sounds, incomprehensible to her. She kissed his black, matted, curly head. At this time, the hasty noise of the countess's dress was heard. She approached them.
“Vasily Dmitrich, I thank you for the honor,” said the countess in an embarrassed voice, but which seemed stern to Denisov, “but my daughter is so young, and I thought that you, as a friend of my son, would turn to me first.” In this case, you would not put me in the need of refusal.
“Athena,” Denisov said with downcast eyes and a guilty look, he wanted to say something else and faltered.
Natasha could not calmly see him so pitiful. She began to sob loudly.
“Countess, I am guilty before you,” Denisov continued in a broken voice, “but know that I adore your daughter and your entire family so much that I would give two lives...” He looked at the countess and, noticing her stern face... “Well, goodbye, Athena,” he said, kissed her hand and, without looking at Natasha, walked out of 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 they put him in the sleigh and how they took him to the first three stations.
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 the house, 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 even more; but Nikolai 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 signature, 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 St. Petersburg. In Torzhok there were no horses at the station, 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 the bed, would you like some tea? – asked the valet.
Pierre did not answer because he did not hear or see anything. He began to think at the last station and continued to think about the same thing - about something so important that he did not pay any attention to what was happening around him. Not only was he not interested in the fact that he would arrive in St. Petersburg later or earlier, or whether he would or would not have a place to rest at this station, but it was still in comparison with the thoughts that occupied him now whether he would stay for a few days. hours or a lifetime at this station.
The caretaker, the caretaker, the valet, the woman with Torzhkov sewing came into the room, offering their services. Pierre, without changing his position with his legs raised, looked at them through his glasses, and did not understand what they could need and how they could all live without resolving the questions that occupied him. And he was preoccupied 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, did they take possession of him with special power. No matter what he started 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 was held had turned in his head. The screw did not go in further, did not go out, but spun, not grabbing anything, still on the same groove, and it was impossible to stop turning it.
The caretaker came in and humbly began to ask His Excellency to wait only two hours, after which he would give courier for His Excellency (what will happen, will happen). The caretaker was obviously lying and only wanted to get extra money from the passerby. “Was it bad or good?” Pierre asked himself. “For me it’s good, for another person passing through it’s bad, but for him it’s inevitable, because he has nothing to eat: he said that an officer beat him for this. And the officer nailed him because he needed to go faster. 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 they killed those who executed him, 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 force controls everything?” he asked himself. And there was no answer to any of these questions, except one, not a logical answer, not to these questions at all. This answer was: “If you die, everything will end. You’ll die and find out everything, or you’ll stop asking.” But it was also scary to die.
The Torzhkov merchant offered her goods in a shrill voice, especially goat shoes. “I have hundreds of rubles that I have nowhere to put, and she stands in a torn fur coat and timidly looks at me,” thought Pierre. And why is this money needed? Can this money add exactly one hair to her happiness, peace of mind? Could anything in the world make her and me less susceptible to evil and death? Death, which will end everything and which should come today or tomorrow, is still in a moment, in comparison with eternity.” And he again pressed the screw that was not gripping anything, and the screw still turned in the same place.
His servant handed him a book of the novel in letters to m m e Suza, cut in half. [Madame Suza.] He began to read about the suffering and virtuous struggle of some Amelie de Mansfeld. [Amalia Mansfeld] “And why did she fight against her seducer,” he thought, “when she loved him? God could not put into her soul aspirations that were 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 himself and around him seemed to him confusing, meaningless and disgusting. But in this very disgust for everything around him, Pierre found a kind of irritating pleasure.
“I dare to ask your Excellency to make room for a little bit, for them,” said the caretaker, entering the room and leading behind him another traveler who had been stopped for lack of horses. The man passing by was a squat, broad-boned, yellow, wrinkled old man with gray overhanging eyebrows over shiny eyes of an indeterminate grayish color.
Pierre took his feet off the table, stood up and lay down on the bed prepared for him, occasionally glancing at the newcomer, who with a sullenly tired look, without looking at Pierre, was heavily undressing with the help of a servant. Left in a worn-out sheepskin coat covered with nankin and in felt boots on thin, bony legs, the traveler sat down on the sofa, leaning his very large, short-cropped head, wide at the temples, against the back and looked at Bezukhy. The stern, intelligent and insightful expression of this look struck Pierre. He wanted to talk to the passerby, but when he was about to turn to him with a question about the road, the passerby had already closed his eyes and folded his wrinkled old hands, on the finger of one of which there was a large cast-iron ring with the image of Adam’s head, sat motionless, either resting, or about thinking deeply and calmly about something, as it seemed to Pierre. The traveler's servant was covered with wrinkles, also a yellow old man, without a mustache or beard, which apparently had not been shaved, and had never grown on him. A nimble old servant dismantled the cellar, prepared the 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 handed it to him. Pierre began to feel uneasy and necessary, and even inevitable, to enter into a conversation with this passing person.
The servant brought back his empty, overturned glass with a half-eaten piece of sugar and asked if anything was needed.
- Nothing. “Give me the book,” said the passerby. The servant handed him a book, which seemed spiritual to Pierre, and the traveler began to read. Pierre looked at him. Suddenly the traveler put the book aside, laid it closed, and, again closing his eyes and leaning on the back, sat down in his previous 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 gaze, but the brilliant, senile eyes irresistibly attracted him to them.
“I have the pleasure of speaking with Count Bezukhy, if I’m not mistaken,” said the traveler slowly and loudly. Pierre silently and 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’m very sorry about that, my lord.”
Pierre blushed and, hastily lowering his legs from the bed, bent over to the old man, smiling unnaturally and timidly.
“I didn’t mention this to you out of curiosity, my lord, but for more important reasons.” “He paused, not letting Pierre out of his gaze, and shifted on the sofa, inviting Pierre to sit next to him with this gesture. It was unpleasant for Pierre to enter into conversation with this old man, but he, involuntarily submitting to him, came up and sat down next to 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. - Thank you very much...Where are you passing from? “The face of the traveler was not kind, even cold and stern, but despite that, both the speech and the face of the new acquaintance had an irresistibly attractive effect on Pierre.
“But if for some reason you don’t like talking to me,” said the old man, “then just say so, my lord.” - And he suddenly smiled unexpectedly, a fatherly tender smile.
“Oh no, not at all, on the contrary, I’m very glad to meet you,” said Pierre, and, looking again at the hands of his new acquaintance, he took a closer look at the ring. He saw Adam's head on it, a sign of Freemasonry.
“Let me ask,” he said. -Are you a Mason?
“Yes, I belong to the brotherhood of free stonemasons,” said the traveler, looking deeper and deeper into Pierre’s eyes. “Both on my own behalf and on their behalf, I extend a brotherly hand to you.”
Z1 by Konrad Zuse
The creator of the first working computer with program control is considered to be the German engineer Konrad Zuse, who loved to invent since childhood and, while still in school, designed a model of a machine for changing money. He began dreaming of a machine capable of performing tedious calculations instead of a person when he was still a student. Unaware of the work of Charles Babbage, Zuse soon began to create a device much like the English mathematician's Analytical Engine. In 1936, Zuse quit the company where he worked in order to devote more time to building a computer. Having received a certain amount of money from friends, he set up a “workshop” on a small table in the corner of the living room in his parents’ house. When the size of the machine began to grow, Zuse first moved two more tables to his workplace, and then moved with his device to the middle of the room. After about two years, the computer, which occupied an area of about 4 m2 and was a complex network of relays and wires, was ready. The machine, which he named Z 1 (from Zuse - Zuse's surname, written in German), had a keyboard for data entry. The result of the calculations appeared on the panel - many small light bulbs were used for this. Overall, Zuse was pleased with the device, but found keyboard input awkward and slow. He began looking for other options, and after some time a solution was found: commands for the machine began to be entered using used 35 mm photographic film, in which holes were punched. The machine that worked with punched paper tape was called Z 2. And in 1941, Konrad Zuse completed the construction of the Z 3 relay computer, which used the binary number system. These examples of vehicles were destroyed during bombing during the war. All that remained was the Z 4 machine, which appeared in March 1945 (which was used for scientific calculations at the University of Göttingen), and later Zuse also produced the Z 5 model. The main elements of all his computers were electromechanical relays, similar to those then used, for example, in telephone switches 
In 1942, Zuse and the Austrian electrical engineer Helmut Schreyer, who collaborated with Zuse from time to time, proposed creating a fundamentally new type of device. They were going to convert the Z 3 computer from electromechanical relays to vacuum tubes, which have no moving parts. The new machine was supposed to operate hundreds of times faster than any of the machines available at that time in warring Germany. However, this proposal was rejected: Hitler imposed a ban on all “long-term” scientific developments, since he was confident of a quick victory. In the difficult post-war years, Zuse, unable to continue to fully work directly on the computer, directed all his energy to the development of the theory. He came up with an effective way to program, not only for the Z 4 computer, but for any other similar machine. Working alone, Zuse created a programming system called Plankalkul (Plankalkul, “calculus of plans”). This language (superior in its capabilities to Algol, which appeared about 12 years later) is called the first high-level language. Zuse prepared a brochure where he talked about his creation and the possibility of using it to solve a variety of problems, including sorting numbers and performing arithmetic operations in the binary number system (other computers of that time worked in the decimal system), and also presented several dozen fragments of programs on Plankalküle for evaluation of chess positions. Not expecting to see his language implemented on a computer, he noted: “Plankalküll was born solely as a result of theoretical work, without any connection with whether or not machines suitable for programs on Plankalküll will appear in the foreseeable future.” 
Zuse's entire work was published only in the 1970s. This publication made experts wonder what impact Plankalkül might have had if it had been widely known earlier. In the USA, the creation of relay computers was carried out independently of Zuse by George Stibitz (“Model I”, ..., “Model V” machines) and Howard Aiken (“Mark 1” and other computers). And one of the most advanced “purely relay” machines was RVM-1, designed and built under the leadership of computer specialist Nikolai Ivanovich Bessonov in our country in the mid-1950s. Relay computers had a low speed of performing arithmetic operations and low reliability, which was explained primarily by the low speed and low reliability of their main counting and storage elements - electromechanical relays. In addition, these machines had the same disadvantage as Babbage's Analytical Engine: the lack of a stored program. However, they occupy a very honorable place in the history of computer technology, since they are the first operating automatic program-controlled universal computers.
Today, when personal computers are churned out in the millions every year, it is difficult to imagine that just 60-70 years ago computers were assembled by hand by individual enthusiasts, in conditions far from factory ones. The 30s and 40s of the last century were a “pioneering” milestone in the history of computers. It was an amazing time, which predetermined not only the development and growth of computer technology in the future. It also marked the beginning of a person’s total dependence on computers in almost all spheres of his life, the beginning of computerization, digital methods of computing and storing data, etc.
The most rapid and important advances in the development of science and technology occur thanks to the military-industrial complex, that is, the military-industrial complex. This is where enormous human, financial and other resources are usually concentrated. For this reason, the army needs the most high-tech killing weapons, the development of which requires not only costs, but also scientific and technological innovations and discoveries. It is unlikely that the development of nuclear energy would have progressed at such a pace if the USA and USSR had not had a real race to create an atomic bomb. In the First World War, artillery, armored forces, and aviation were used, but complex calculations (ballistic, for example) were not yet required due to the obvious “underdevelopment” of military equipment, science and industry. And in the 30s of the last century, the military of the most developed countries in the world needed machines that could quickly and accurately calculate a wide variety of operations. It became more and more difficult for people to cope with routine work, which was growing like a snowball, which is why the most gifted representatives of the human race had the idea to shift the boring task to the “mechanical shoulders” of a computer. In a word, the pre-war situation in Europe in the mid-30s of the twentieth century literally pushed technical geniuses into the general’s arms. Konrad Zuse, an outstanding German designer and thinker, could not resist such “fraternization”. Zuse was born on June 22, 1910 in Berlin, but grew up in northern Saxony. Young Conrad began to invent from an early age. It is a well-known fact that at school they were presented with a project for a working machine for changing coins. So it is not surprising that in 1935 Zuse successfully graduated from the Technical High School Berlin-Charlottenburg and left with an engineering diploma. Then fate brought him to the Henschel aircraft factory in Dessau. This is where the interests of Zuse and the military intersected. At first it’s very peculiar. The newly-minted engineer worked at the factory for about a year, and then put his resignation letter on the boss’s desk. But Zuse left then to start creating... a programmable calculating machine. While still a student (starting around 1934), he began to think about creating a machine for computing. The final impetus for the creation of such a machine was given by the daily routine calculations that Conrad had to do at work. In particular, he pored over calculations of the load that occurs when the wing vibrates. But a programmable computer is not a coin-changing machine. Konrad Zuse understood the seriousness of the business he was taking on, and therefore immediately equipped an entire room in his parents’ house as his “workshop.” The parents did not share their son’s enthusiasm, however, we must give them their due, they provided Conrad with every possible assistance. Thus, the funds for the construction of the machine were exclusively private. The start of work on Zuse's first programmable computer dates back to 1936. A characteristic feature of this machine was that metal plates, rather than relays, were used for switching. One can only envy Zuse’s tenacity, because these plates, amounting to two tens of thousands (!), were cut out with a jigsaw, however, not without the help of his closest friends. Despite all the difficulties, in 1938 Zuse was able to demonstrate a programmable digital machine to his parents and friends. At first it was called V-1 (Versuchsmodell-1, that is, “Experimental Model”), later, the names of all Conrad’s computers began to begin with the letter Z (Z1, Z2, Z3, etc. - after the initial letter of the inventor’s last name).
The Z1 computer had most of the features of a modern PC. This includes binary code (Zuse had the foresight to abandon the decimal system) 1 , a separate memory block, the ability to enter data from the console, and processing floating point numbers. A punched card could be used as a medium for data entry, which Zuse adapted to make from 35 mm film, punching holes in it. The Z1 had one serious drawback - unreliable calculations. The model was indeed experimental, although it could be used for scientific calculations. And, of course, it was not sold. By the way, for early computers (until the beginning of the boom of IBM PC-compatible computers in the early 80s of the twentieth century), the sales indicator was very important and served as a kind of indicator of success. However, the Z1 was not destined to remain even in a single original copy. In 1943, the computer was destroyed after an aerial bombing, along with all design drawings and diagrams 2.
Key Features of Z1
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Implementation |
Thin metal plates |
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Frequency |
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Computing block |
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Average computing speed |
Multiplication - 5 seconds |
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Data input |
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Data output |
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Memory |
64 words of 22 bits |
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Weight |
About 500 kg |
Unfortunately, Konrad Zuse did not avoid being sent to military units - Nazi Germany unleashed the Second World War. However, Zuse did not have to stay in the role of an infantry soldier for long, no more than six months; the inventor managed to convince the military leadership that he would bring more benefit not on the battlefield, but by building a new computer (now known as Z2). The Institute for Aerodynamic Research of the Third Reich even began funding Zuse's work; in 1940, he was able to open a small company, Zuse Apparatebau, to create computers, which existed until the end of the war. The inaccuracy and unreliability of the Z1 (due to mechanical design complexity) prompted Zuse to turn to the use of electromechanical switches - relays, for greater accuracy in calculations (limited on funds, Zuse purchased decommissioned relays from telephone companies). The Z2's memory still consisted of metal plates, but the computing unit consisted of 800 relays. By the spring of 1939, Z2 was ready. There was no point in further improving this “generation” of computers; Zuse already saw a prototype of a future machine that would be entirely relay-based and serve not only as a demonstration model.
Key Features of Z2
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Implementation |
Thin metal plates, relays |
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Frequency |
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Computing block |
Floating point processing, machine word length - 16 bits |
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Average computing speed |
Multiplication - 5 seconds |
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Data input |
Keyboard, punched tape reader |
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Memory |
16 words of 16 bits |
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Weight |
About 500 kg |
On May 12, 1941, in Berlin, Zuse presented the famous computer to the assembled scientists. The success of the demonstration was enormous. It is no coincidence that the Z3 is considered the first functional, freely programmable computer in the world (its “competitors”, Mark I and ENIAC, appeared after 1943). True, the Z3 did not store programs in the memory; for this, a memory of 64 words was small, and Zuse did not strive for this. There was a drawback - the lack of implementation of a conditional jump.
However, the main problem was that the highest military officials of the Wehrmacht did not doubt the quick victory of German weapons, and therefore attached little importance to computers. This fact is indicative. One day, Zuse and his friend Helmut Schreyer, an engineer by profession, turned to the generals for help to help finance a computer created not on relays, but on vacuum tubes (Schreyer’s idea). The military, having heard that it would take about two years to build such a computer, rejected Zuse-Schreyer's idea, saying that Germany would win the war much earlier, without the help of new electronic computing tools. Of course, after Hitler’s attack on the USSR, no computers would have helped Nazi Germany, but the above case clearly shows (as does Zuse’s sending to the front) that the German leadership did not understand the full potential of computer engineering. In this regard, the work on the “weapon of retaliation” (“Vau”) is indicative, which either accelerated or slowed down depending on the successes/failures on the military fronts.
Key Features of the Z3
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Implementation |
Relay (600 - calculation block, 1600 - memory block) |
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Frequency |
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Computing block |
Floating point processing, machine word length - 22 bits |
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Average computing speed |
Multiplication, division - 3 seconds, addition - 0.7 seconds |
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Data input |
Keyboard, punched tape reader |
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Data output |
Lamp panel (decimal notation) |
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Memory |
64 words of 22 bits |
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Weight |
About 1000 kg |
Until 1944, the Z3 was successfully used for aviation calculations, when, again after a bombing, the computer was destroyed3. Unbending Konrad Zuse takes on the creation of the fourth computer - Z4.
The Z4, unlike its predecessors, had an enviable fate. The Zuse company was preparing the Z4 for mass production, but fear of bombing forced the not fully debugged computer to be removed from Berlin. It was originally planned to be hidden in an underground factory in Nordhausen, where V-missiles were assembled. But when Zuse, descending into the terrible dungeon, saw thousands of prisoners working (and dying) there, in inhuman conditions, he rejected this place with horror. So the Z4 was taken to the Bavarian Alps, where in the town of Oberoch Zuse met another outstanding German inventor and designer - Wernher von Braun, famous for creating the first combat ballistic missile (A-4/V-2)4. Zuse did not join von Braun, who was cheerfully walking into captivity, but, having walked another 20 km, hid the disassembled computer in the barn of an Alpine hotel in the town of Hinterstein. The post-war years were a difficult test for Zuse, who had to practically reassemble the Z4. To restore mechanical memory, they took iron tin cans left by the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition. In order to somehow survive, Zuse used his second talent - an artist. He made woodcuts and sold them to local farmers and American soldiers. In 1948, the restored Z4 was transported on horseback to Hopferau, where Zuse was visited by Professor Stiefel from the ETH Zurich. It is still not entirely clear where the professor found out about the Z4. This meeting became a turning point for the future life of Konrad Zuse. As Stiefel watched, he wrote a program, made a punch card, and entered the data into the Z4. The result obtained was correct. Encouraged by this, Stiefel offered to rent a Z4. To sign a contract with ETHZ, Zuse registered the company "Zuse KG". It must be said that the Zurich professor had no choice. At that time, he could only count on the Z4, since it was impossible to get American computers, but Zuse’s machine worked reliably (even despite the memory made of metal plates), had a special unit for creating programs and a number of other advantages.
Key Features of the Z4
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Implementation |
Relays, memory - metal plates |
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Frequency |
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Computing block |
Floating point processing, machine word length - 32 bits |
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Average computing speed |
Notes
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