Konrad Zuse was born in Berlin on June 22,1910. He worked as a construction engineer for the Henschel Aircraft Company in Berlin, Germany at the beginning of WWII. Konrad Zuse earned the title of "inventor of the modern computer" for his series of automatic calculators. He invented these calculators to aid him with his lengthy engineering calculations. Zuse did not accept this title. He held the notion that many of the inventions of his contemporaries and successors were equally if not more important than his own. One of the most difficult aspects of performing a large calculation with either a mere slide rule or a mechanical adding machine is keeping track of all of the results of the intermediate calculations and using them at the right time or the in the right order. Zuse set out to remedy that difficulty.
He realized that an automatic-calculator would require a control, memory, and a calculator for the arithmetic. In 1936, Zuse made a mechanical calculator called the Z1. The Z1 was the first binary computer. Zuse used it to explore several revolutionary technologies in calculator development. These included floating-point arithmetic, high-capacity memory and modules or relays operating on the yes/no principle. Zuse's ideas succeeded more with each Z prototype. By 1939 Zuse had completed the Z2, the first fully functioning electro-mechanical computer. Konrad Zuse completed the Z3 in 1941. He did this with recycled materials donated by fellow university staff and students. The Z3 was the world's first electronic, fully programmable digital computer based on a binary floating-point number and switching system. Zuse used old movie film to store programs and data rather than using paper tape or punched cards. At this point in time paper was in short supply in Germany due to the war. The block structure of the Z3 is very much like that of a modern computer. The Z3 consisted of separate units, such as a punch tape reader, control unit, floating-point arithmetic unit, and input/output devices. Konrad Zuse wrote the first algorithmic programming language called 'Plankalkül' in 1946. He used his language to program his computers. Zuse wrote the world's first chess-playing program using Plankalkül. Zuse was unsuccessful at convincing the Nazi government to support his work for a computer based on electronic valves. The Germans thought they were close to winning the War and, as a result, felt no need to support further research. The models of the Z1 through Z3 were destroyed during the war along with Zuse Apparatebau, the first computer company that Zuse formed in 1940. They were later rebuilt in 1960 and 1984. Konrad Zuse died on December 18, 1995.
Image of Konrad Zuse: http://free.pages.at/webarchiv/zuse/bilder/konradZuse.jpg
Image of his Z1: http://www.kerryr.net/images/pioneers/gallery/z1_lg.jpg
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