- Z4 (computer)
The Z4
computer was the world's second commercial digital computer, designed by German engineerKonrad Zuse , built by his company "Zuse Apparatebau ".It was delivered to ETH Zürich, Switzerland, in September
1950 . In 1954, the Z4 was transferred to the Institut "Franco-Allemand des Recherches de St. Louis" inFrance , where it was in use until 1959. Today, the Z4 is on display in theDeutsches Museum inMunich .The Z4 inspired the ETH to build its own computer (mainly by Ambrosius P. Speiser), which was called
ERMETH , an acronym for "Elektronische Rechenmaschine ETH" (i.e. Electronic Computing Machine ETH).In 1950/1951 the Z4 was the only working digital computer in continental Europe, and the second digital computer in the world to be sold, beating the
Ferranti Mark I by five months and theUNIVAC I by ten months, but in turn being beaten by theBINAC (although that never worked at the customer's site [cite web |url = http://www.palosverdes.com/lasthurrah/binac-description.html | title = Description of the BINAC |accessdate= 2008-07-26 | work = citing Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 10 #1 1988 ] ). Other computers, all numbered with a leading Z, were built by Zuse and his company. Notable are theZ11 , which was sold to the optics industry and to universities, and theZ22 , the first computer with a memory based on magnetic storage.The Z4 was used for calculations for work on the
Grande Dixence Dam .By 1967, the "Zuse KG" had built a total of 251 computers. Due to financial problems, the company was then sold to Siemens.
Quotation:
"The rattling of the Z4 is the only interesting thing about the Zürich nightlife." (Konrad Zuse)References
External links
* [http://www.ethistory.ethz.ch/rueckblicke/departemente/dinfk/weitere_seiten/angewandte_mathematik/index_DE/popupfriendly Pictures of the Z4 at the ETH Zürich (with German text)]
*
*
*
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
