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layout: person nodeid: bookofproofs$Zuse categories: history,20th-century parentid: bookofproofs$604 tags: origin-germany orderid: 1910 title: Zuse, Konrad born: 1910 died: 1995 keywords: konrad zuse,zuse description: Konrad Zuse was a German computer pioneer who invented the world's first programmable computer: the Z3. references: bookofproofs$6909 contributors: @J-J-O'Connor,@E-F-Robertson,bookofproofs

Zuse.jpg

Konrad Zuse was a German computer pioneer who invented the world's first programmable computer: the Z3.

Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):

  • It was these studies in engineering which led Zuse to become interested in developing a mechanical device for calculating around 1934.
  • After graduating Zuse joined the Henschel Aircraft Company where he worked on stress analysis.
  • His work again involved a great deal of calculation and so, to help him perform these calculations, Zuse built his Z1 computer in his parents living room.
  • Zuse completed the machine in 1938.
  • The main reason why Zuse succeeded in building his mechanical computer where Babbage had failed, was the fact that Zuse's Z1 was a binary machine with two position switches to represent 0 and 1.
  • However, to say that Zuse succeeded with the Z1 is a bit of an exaggeration, for the machine did not work very well.
  • Zuse's plans to develop a bigger and better computer the Z2 involved keeping the same memory system but replacing the mechanical arithmetic unit by electromechanical relays.
  • He then progressed to build the Z3 which was the first computer which Zuse built to be used rather than to test out his ideas.
  • However when Zuse proposed a computer based on electronic valves, the proposal was rejected on the grounds that the Germans were so close to winning the War that further research effort was not necessary.
  • Some of Zuse's computers were destroyed in bombing raids near the end of the war although the Z3 was reconstructed in 1960 for display in a museum in Munich.
  • Zuse began work on his Z4 computer in 1942, and it was almost complete when, due to continued air raids, it was moved from Berlin to Göttingen.
  • Zuse designed several computers other than those of his Z series.
  • The L1 computer which Zuse designed was not for solving arithmetical problems, but rather it was designed to solve logical problems.
  • Zuse set up his own computing company in 1950 and it was taken over by the Siemens electronics firm in 1967.
  • Zuse continued to undertake research on computers and acted as a consultant to Siemens after the firm took over complete control of Zuse's computer company in 1969.
  • As well as his hardware developments Zuse was also interested in software and he developed the first algorithmic programming language known as "Plankalkül" in 1945.

Born 22 June 1910, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Germany. Died 18 December 1995, Hünfeld (near Fulda), Germany.

View full biography at MacTutor