Konrad Zuse
Konrad Zuse (* June 22 1910 in Berlin ; † December 18 1995 in Hünfeld at Fulda ) was a German Civil , inventor of the first functioning computer and entrepreneurs ( Zuse KG ).
life
1928 Konrad Zuse be made at the high school Reform-Real-Gymnasium (today's Lessing-Gymnasium) in Hoyerswerda and since 1995 also honorary citizen of the city. Zuse graduated in 1935 at the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg in Berlin (today the Technical University of Berlin ) from his studies in mechanical engineering. He then worked as a structural engineer for the Henschel aircraft factory in Berlin-Schoenefeld. Only a year later he began independently in the construction of a programmable calculator to work. Preliminary went back to 1934. The result was the 1938 completed, electrically driven mechanical calculator Z1 with limited programming options, the commands of tape indulgences. The Z1 was working because of problems with the mechanical precision never reliable.
1939 Zuse was drafted into the Wehrmacht. He succeeded, however, to convince those responsible to indemnify him, so he could continue working in the construction of computers.
1940 he received from the Aerodynamic Research Institute support. He built the Z2 , an improved version with telephone relays. In the same year he founded his own firm, Zuse Apparatebau "to programmable Computer manufacture.
1941 he built a small apartment in the Kreuzberg Methfesselstraße the Z3 . It was a Binärrechner with limited programming ability, memory and central processing unit from telephone relays. Calculations could be programmed, but there were no conditional jumps and loops possible. The Z3 is now i. A. of functioning as the first computer the world.
The Second World War made it impossible for him, with computer specialists in UK and the USA to get in touch. The Z3 was at the border, the theoretical requirements to meet the Turing machine . The proof was not until much later (1998 ) performed.
Berlin Zuse's company was destroyed by a bomb 1945 hit with the Z3. The partially finished Z4 had previously been brought to safety. Zuse developed in the period 1941-1945 also Plankalkül , the first as the universal programming language is in the world. However, they could at the time computers are not yet implemented , which succeeded only in 2000.
founded after the war, Zuse 1949 in Neukirchen in the former group Hünfeld the Zuse KG . The Z4 was finished and installed at the ETH Zurich . At that time it was the only working computer in Europe and the world's first commercial computer. The Z4 was a few months earlier than the UNIVAC installed.
more computers were built, the type name has always been a Z and a sequential number. Outstanding was the Z11, which was sold in the optical industry and universities, and the Z22, the first computer with magnetic storage .
in 1957 the headquarters of Neukirchen after Bad Hersfeld laid. Until 1967 the company built a total of 251 computers. From 1964 Zuse went from an active partner in the firm, she was later acquired by Siemens . Zuse received numerous awards for his work. 1981 he was awarded the honorary doctorate the Technical University of Dresden . After his retirement, he devoted himself to his hobby of painting.
1969 Zuse wrote the book Calculating space (for details see literature). In it he developed a theory of cellular automata and applied it, similar to later Stephen Wolfram , Also on the cosmology.
A well-replica of the Z3 is now at the Deutsches Museum in Munich , a replica of the Z1 is located in the German Technology Museum in Berlin. There is also a complete Z22 Zuse and various other systems. At the University of Karlsruhe is still a working Z22 in complete facilities (see Article c't 20/02, page 100). Their fate is uncertain. Beginning in 2005 she was in an exhibition set up in Center for Art and Media Technology in Karlsruhe operational. A short time ago featured Z23V is in the German Museum of Technology Berlin (DTMB) (formerly the Museum of Transport and Technology).
1985, Zuse's first honorary member of the Society for computer science . Since 1987, these awards every two years Konrad-Zuse-Medal . Zuse was awarded in 1995 for his lifetime achievements with the Federal Cross of Merit. He was elected in 2003 in ZDF on position 15 of the greatest Germans.
The Museum of the City Hünfeld has also established a Konrad-Zuse-department, which shows some interesting exhibits (eg Z23, Z25, Z64 Graphomat).
Konrad Zuse was a member of the Academic Association motif and an honorary member of the Chaos Computer Club (1995).
Excellence
Zuse developed the method of computer-oriented floats based on the components of mantissa and exponent theoretically and in practice. calculated with this method today any common computer floating point numbers, the calculator to cluster.
designed by its specification of the programming language Plankalkül He first universal programming language in the world.
With the development, design and construction of its first computer ( Z1 to Z4 ), each of which were based on the latest switching technology, he wrote the history of research. Through his later work as a computer manufacturer, he was also involved in large measure to the introduction of computers in business enterprises.
If you consider that our modern, computerized world today without his inventions could no longer exist, its low recognition honors in any degree the very great merit, he has brought humanity to the present day.
See also
literature
- Jürgen Alex, Hermann Flessner, Wilhelm Mons Horst Zuse: Konrad Zuse : The father of the computer. , Fulda 2000, ISBN 3-790-00317-4
- Raul Rojas (Editor): The computers of Konrad Zuse , Springer, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-540-63461-4
- Konrad Zuse : Calculating space , Friedrich Vieweg u. Son, Wiesbaden, 1969, ISBN not available, an out of print, see download links
- Konrad Zuse: The Computer - My Life , Springer, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-540-56292-3
- Jürgen Alex : ways and wrong ways of Konrad Zuse , in: Scientific American (Engl. edition of Scientific American) 1 / 1997, ISSN 0170-2971
- Jürgen Alex: comments about any aspect of writing Calculating ROOM of Konrad Zuse, in: Festschrift zum 85 Birthday of Konrad Zuse, Konrad-Zuse-Gesellschaft (ed.), Bonn and Hünfeld 1995
Wikiquote: Quotes about Konrad Zuse - literature by and about Konrad Zuse in the catalog of DDB
- Short CV Konrad Zuse in LeMO (living virtual museum online)
- Konrad Zuse and his computers collected by his son, Dr.-Ing. Horst Zuse, TU Berlin
- Biography (English) by Dr.-Ing. Horst Zuse Zuse
- Museum in Hoyerswerda . Includes biographical data Zuse.
- Konrad Zuse Hotel events and exhibitions around Konrad Zuse in Hünfeld
- Konrad Zuse Internet Archive Extensive documentation of his life's work
- Konrad-Zuse-Gesellschaft care of the memory of Konrad Zuse
- German Technology Museum Berlin special Konrad Zuse
- download Calculating space from Electronic data processing 8 (1967) 336-344: ftp://ftp.idsia.ch/pub/juergen/zuse67scan.pdf from the side http://www.idsia.ch/ ~ juergen / digitalphysics.html
- A Extract from the autobiography of Konrad Zuse: http://www.mediaculture-online.de/Geschichte_des_Computers_Inter.108+M5721831e558.0.html
