Konrad Zuse's Z3 was the first working programmable, fully automatic machine, whose attributes, with the addition of conditional branching, have often been the ones used as criteria in defining a computer. The Z3 was built with 2,000 relays, had a clock frequency of ~5–10 Hz, and a word length of 22 bits.^[1] Calculations on the computer were performed in full binary floating point arithmetic. Konrad Zuse (1992) Statue in Bad Hersfeld Konrad Zuse (June 22, 1910 – December 18, 1995) was a German engineer and computer pioneer. ... Computer programming (often simply programming) is the craft of implementing one or more interrelated abstract algorithms using a particular programming language to produce a concrete computer program. ... An automaton (plural: automata) is a self-operating machine. ... Wind turbines The scientific definition of a machine is any device that transmits or modifies energy. ... A BlueGene supercomputer cabinet. ... Automotive style miniature relay A relay is an electrical switch that opens and closes under the control of another electrical circuit. ... In synchronous digital electronics, such as most computers, a clock signal is a signal used to coordinate the actions of two or more circuits. ... The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the SI unit of frequency. ... In computing, word is a term for the natural unit of data used by a particular computer design. ... This article is about the unit of information. ... The binary or base-two numeral system is a system for representing numbers in which a radix of two is used; that is, each digit in a binary numeral may have either of two different values. ... A floating-point number is a digital representation for a number in a certain subset of the rational numbers, and is often used to approximate an arbitrary real number on a computer. ... Arithmetic tables for children, Lausanne, 1835 Arithmetic or arithmetics (from the Greek word αριθμός = number) is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics, used by almost everyone, for tasks ranging from simple daily counting to advanced science and business calculations. ...

The machine was completed in 1941 (on May 12 that year, it was successfully presented to an audience of scientists in Berlin).^{[citation needed]} The original Z3 was destroyed in 1944 during an Allied bombardment of Berlin. A fully functioning replica was built in the 1960s by the originator's company Zuse KG and is on permanent display in the Deutsches Museum. In 1998 the Z3 was proven to be Turing-complete. For the movie, see 1941 (film). ... May 12 is the 132nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (133rd in leap years). ... For other uses, see Berlin (disambiguation). ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... Deutsches Museum Deutsches Museum The Deutsches Museum (German Museum) in Munich, Germany, is the worlds largest museum of technology and science, with approximately 1. ... In computability theory a programming language or any other logical system is called Turing-complete if it has a computational power equivalent to a universal Turing machine. ...

How the Z3 relates to other work

Unlike the first non-programmable computer built by Wilhelm Schickard in 1623, the Z3 of 1941 was program-controlled. Wilhelm Schickard Wilhelm Schickard (April 22, 1592 – October 23, 1635) was a German polymath who built the first computer in 1623. ... Year 1623 (MDCXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ...

The success of Zuse's Z3 is often attributed to its use of the simple binary system. This was invented roughly three centuries earlier by Gottfried Leibniz; Boole later used it to develop his Boolean algebra. In 1937, Claude Shannon of MIT introduced the idea of mapping Boolean algebra onto electronic relays in a seminal work on digital circuit design (see also Z1). Nevertheless, Zuse (who did not know Shannon's work) was the one who put the ideas together and made it work on the program-controlled Z3. It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ... This article is not about George Boolos, another mathematical logician. ... In abstract algebra, a Boolean algebra is an algebraic structure (a collection of elements and operations on them obeying defining axioms) that captures essential properties of both set operations and logic operations. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 _ February 24, 2001) has been called the father of information theory, and was the founder of practical digital circuit design theory. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private, coeducational research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Digital circuits are electric circuits based on a number of discrete voltage levels. ... reproduction of the Z1 The Z1 was a mechanical computer created by Konrad Zuse in 1937. ...

The first design of a program-controlled computer was Charles Babbage's Difference Engine in the mid 1800s. A working model was not made in his lifetime, presumably because its decimal design was much more complicated than the binary Z3. In 1991 a difference engine was completed, using Babbage's original plans, and functioned well. If Babbage's friend Ada Lovelace was the first theoretical programmer, writing programs for a machine that did not exist, then Zuse was the first practical programmer. Charles Babbage (26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English mathematician, philosopher, mechanical engineer and (proto-) computer scientist who originated the idea of a programmable computer. ... Part of Babbages Difference engine, assembled after his death by Babbages son, using parts found in his laboratory. ... Ada Lovelace Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (December 10, 1815 – November 27, 1852), born Augusta Ada Byron, is mainly known for having written a description of Charles Babbages early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. ...

The ENIAC was completed 5 years after the Z3. ENIAC used vacuum tubes to implement switches, Z3 used relays (a request for funding for an electronic successor was denied as "strategically unimportant"). ENIAC was decimal, Z3 was binary. Until 1948, to program ENIAC actually meant to rewire it; while the Z3 read programs off a tape (actually a punched film). Today's computers are based on transistors instead of tubes or relays; their basic architecture, however, is much more similar to Z3's than to ENIAC's. Z3 needed an external tape to store its program. The Manchester Baby of 1948 and the EDSAC of 1949 were the world's first computers with internally stored programs, implementing a concept frequently attributed to a 1945 paper of John von Neumann and colleagues. A patent application of Konrad Zuse, however, mentioned this concept almost a decade earlier in 1936, although the patent was rejected. ENIAC ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer,[1] was the first large-scale, electronic, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems,[2] although earlier computers had been built with some of these properties. ... In electronics, a vacuum tube or (outside North America) thermionic valve or just valve, is a device generally used to amplify, switch or otherwise modify, a signal by controlling the movement of electrons in an evacuated space. ... Automotive style miniature relay A relay is an electrical switch that opens and closes under the control of another electrical circuit. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Celluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents, generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic. ... Photo of transistor types (tape measure marked in centimeters) Transistor in the SMD form factor The transistor is a solid state semiconductor device used for amplification and switching. ... Replica of the SSEM The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), nicknamed Baby, was the first stored-program computer to run a program, on June 21, 1948. ... EDSAC EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) was an early British computer (one of the first computers to be created). ... The so-called von Neumann architecture is a model for a computing machine that uses a single storage structure to hold both the set of instructions on how to perform the computation and the data required or generated by the computation. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ... The First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (or First Draft) was an incomplete 101-page document written by John von Neumann and distributed on June 30, 1945 by Herman Goldstine, security officer on the classified ENIAC project. ... John von Neumann (Hungarian Margittai Neumann János Lajos) (born December 28, 1903 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary; died February 8, 1957 in Washington D.C., United States) was a Hungarian-born American mathematician and polymath who made contributions to quantum physics, functional analysis, set theory, topology, economics, computer science, numerical... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The binary numeral system, or base-2 number system, is a numeral system that represents numeric values using two symbols, usually 0 and 1. ... Electronics is the study of the flow of charge through various materials and devices such as, semiconductors, resistors, inductors, capacitors, nano-structures, and vacuum tubes. ... A computer program is a collection of instructions that describe a task, or set of tasks, to be carried out by a computer. ... In computability theory, an abstract machine or programming language is called Turing complete, Turing equivalent, or (computationally) universal if it has a computational power equivalent to a universal Turing machine (a simplified model of a programmable computer). ... Konrad Zuse (1992) Statue in Bad Hersfeld Konrad Zuse (June 22, 1910 – December 18, 1995) was a German engineer and computer pioneer. ... Film stock is the term for photographic film on which films are recorded. ... Konrad Zuses Z3 was the first working programmable, fully automatic machine, whose attributes, with the addition of conditional branching, have often been the ones used as criteria in defining a computer. ... Atanasoff-Berry Computer replica at 1st floor of Durham Center, Iowa State University The Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) was one of the first electronic digital computing device. ... A Colossus Mark II computer. ... Portion of the Harvard-IBM Mark 1, left side. ... ENIAC ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer,[1] was the first large-scale, electronic, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems,[2] although earlier computers had been built with some of these properties. ... Read-only memory (usually known by its acronym, ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. ...

Relation to the concept of a universal Turing machine

It was possible to construct loops on the Z3, but there was no conditional jump instruction (although it would have been rather straightforward to insert one). Nevertheless, there is a way of implementing a universal Turing machine on a Z3 (assuming unlimited storage and zero crashing probability), as was shown in 1998.^{[citation needed]} An artistic representation of a Turing Machine . ...

From a pragmatic point of view, however, it is much more relevant that the Z3 provided a quite practical instruction set for the typical engineering applications of the 1940s—Zuse was a civil engineer who only started to build his computers to facilitate his work in his main profession—and that in many pioneering ways it was quite similar to modern computers. It has been suggested that some sections of this article be split into a new article entitled instruction set architecture. ... A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering. ...

See also

• Manchester Mark I
• Manchester Mark II
• IBM SSEC

Manchester Mark 1 was the worlds first stored program computer, which made its first successful run of a program on 21st June 1948 The Manchester Mark I was one of the earliest electronic computers, built at the University of Manchester in England, in 1949. ... The IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC), also called Poppa, was an electomechanical computer built by IBM, finished in January 1948. ...

Notes and references

Konrad Zuse (1992) Statue in Bad Hersfeld Konrad Zuse (June 22, 1910 – December 18, 1995) was a German engineer and computer pioneer. ...

External links

• Z3 page at the Technical University of Berlin
• Was Zuse's Z3 the First Programmable Computer? – Slashdot item, 7 June 2004, with several links and comments
• The Life and Work of Konrad Zuse
• Konrad Zuse’s Legacy: The Architecture of the Z1 and Z3 (PDF)
• How to Make Zuse's Z3 a Universal Computer Raúl Rojas
• The Zuse Computers Raúl Rojas

Computers designed by Konrad Zuse
Z1 (1936) • Z2 (1939) • Z3 (1941) • Z4 (1950) • Z5 • Z11 • Z22 (1955)