Mailüfterl

Today the Mailüfterl is located in the Technischen Museum Wien

Mailüfterl is an Austrian nickname for the first transistorized computer on the European mainland. The first computers of this kind were TRADIC, Harwell CADET and TX-0.

Mailüfterl wire side

It was built in 1955 at the Vienna University of Technology by Heinz Zemanek. The builder plays on a quote on an operating (tube) computer: If it is not the rapid calculation speed of American models that whirlwind 'or' Typhoon ' can achieve, it will be enough for a Wiener , Mailüfterl' (which means something like Viennese May breeze).The full name of the is Binär dezimaler Volltransistor-Rechenautomat (binary decimal fully transistored computer).

Mailüfterl Control Unit

The computer consists of 3.000 transistors, 5.000 diodes, 1.000 assembly platelets, 100.000 solder joints, 15.000 resistors, 5.000 capacitors and 20,000 meters switching wire. With a width of 4 meters, a height of 2.5 meters and a depth of 50 centimeters, the plant was then compared to the small tube computers.

Zemanek said about his famous project later, it was a half-illegal exercise of a senior student, which he realized without official authorization and hence without financial support from the university with a group of other students. In 1954 he traveled to Philips in Holland, where he asked for a donation in kind. The amount of 1,000 transistors was very difficult to obtain only seven years after their invention. Yet Zemanek received a commitment for 1000 - rather slow - hearing aid transistors ^[1] and Philips finally got a total of 4,000 high-quality transistors.

Sources

1. ^ interview with Heinz Zemanek, Telepolis, 8 August 1999

See also

• List of transistorized computers

External links

• Oral history interview with Heinz Zemanek, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Zemanek discusses his engineering education and work in radar technology during World War II. Zemanek then focuses on the development of computers in Austria: magnetic drums and magnetic memory, the MAILUFTERL computer, LOGALGOL and other compilers, the University of Vienna where Zemanek worked on his computer, the subsequent sponsorship of the project by International Business Machines Europe, and ALGOL and PL/I language standards development.
• Extensive site on the topic (German)
• Editorial contribution to pressetext.eu (German)
• Mailüfterl emulator in Java