Image:Konrad_Zuse_(1992).jpg Image:KZuse_denkmal.jpg]] '''Konrad Zuse''' (June_22 1910 – December_18 1995) was a German Engineer and computer pioneer. His greatest achievement was the completion of the first functional tape-stored-program-controlled computer, the Z3, in 1941. In 1998 the Z3 was proven to be Turing-complete. The Z3 is claimed to be "first computer" as such, though this depends on complex and subtle definitional issues, as the machine was not truly general-purpose in the manner of later machines (see the article of History_of_computing for a thorough discussion). Zuse also designed a high-level Programming_language, the Plankalkül, allegedly in 1945, although this was a theoretical contribution, since the language was never actually implemented within his lifetime and did not directly influence early implemented languages. In addition to his technical work, Zuse founded the first computer startup company in 1946. This company built the Z4, which became the first ''commercial'' computer, leased to ETH_Zürich in 1950. Due to the circumstances of World_War_II, however, Zuse's work initially went largely unnoticed in the UK and the US; possibly his first documented influence on a US company was IBM's 1946 option on his patents. In the late 1960s, Zuse suggested the concept of a Calculating_Space (a computation-based universe). There is a replica of the Z3, as well as the Z4, in the Deutsches_Museum in Munich. The Deutsches_Technikmuseum_Berlin in Berlin devotes a special exhibition to Konrad Zuse and his works. Shown are twelve of his machines, including the replicated Z1, original documents, including the Plankalkül, and several of Zuse's paintings. ==Pre-WWII work and the Z1== Born in Berlin, Germany, Zuse graduated in Civil_engineering from the ''Technische Hochschule Berlin-Charlottenburg'' (today the ''Technische Universität Berlin'' or Technical_University_of_Berlin) in 1935. During his engineering studies, Zuse had to perform many routine calculations by hand, which he found mind-numbingly boring. This experience led him to dream about performing calculations by machine. He started work at the Henschel aircraft factory in Dessau, but only one year later he resigned from his job to build a programmable machine. Working in his parents' apartment in 1938, his first attempt, called the Z1, was a binary electrically driven mechanical calculator with limited programmability, reading instructions from Punched_tape. The Z1 never worked well, though, due to the lack of sufficiently precise parts. The Z1 and its original Blueprints were destroyed during World War II. ==The WWII years; the Z2, Z3, and Z4== World War II made it impossible and undesirable for Zuse and contemporary German computer scientists to work with similar scientists in the UK and the USA, or even to stay in contact. In 1939, Zuse was called for military service but was able to convince the army to let him return to building his computers. In 1940, he gained support from the ''Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt'' (AVA, Aerodynamic Research Institute), which used his work for the production of Glide_bombs. Zuse built the Z2, a revised version of his machine, from telephone Relays. The same year, he started a company, ''Zuse Apparatebau'' (Zuse Apparatus Engineering), to manufacture his programmable machines. Satisfied with the function of the basic Z2 machine, he built the Z3 and completed it in 1941. It was a binary calculator featuring programmability with loops but without conditional jumps, with memory and a calculation unit based on telephone relays. Despite the absence of conditional jumps as convenient instructions, the Z3 was a Turing_complete computer (ignoring the fact that no physical computer can be truly Turing complete due to limited storage size). However, its Turing-completeness was never envisioned by Zuse (who had practical applications in mind) and only proven in 1998 (see History_of_computing_hardware). Zuse never received the official support that computer pioneers in Allied countries, such as Alan_Turing, managed to get. The telephone relays used in his machines were largely collected from discarded stock. Zuse's company, together with the Z3, was destroyed in 1945 by an Allied attack. Fortunately, the partially finished, relay-based Z4 had been moved to a safe place earlier. Zuse designed the first high-level programming language, Plankalkül, from 1941 to 1945, although he did not publish it in its entirety until 1972. No compiler or interpreter was available for Plankalkül until a team from the Free_University_of_Berlin implemented it in 2000, five years after Zuse died. ==Zuse the entrepreneur== In 1946 Zuse founded the world's first computer startup company: the ''Zuse-Ingenieurbüro Hopferau''. Venture capital was raised through ETH Zürich and an IBM option on Zuse's patents. Zuse founded another company, ''Zuse_KG'', in 1949. The Z4 was finished and delivered to the ETH_Zürich, Switzerland in September 1950. At that time, it was the only working computer in continental Europe, and the first computer in the world to be sold, beating the Ferranti_Mark_I by five months and the UNIVAC_I by ten months. Other computers, all numbered with a leading Z, were built by Zuse and his company. Notable are the Z11, which was sold to the optics industry and to universities, and the Z22, the first computer with a memory based on magnetic storage. By 1967, the ''Zuse KG'' had built a total of 251 computers. Due to financial problems, it was then sold to Siemens. ==''Calculating Space''; Z1 resurrection== In 1967 Zuse also suggested that the Universe itself is running on a grid of computers (Digital_physics); in 1969 he published the book ''Rechnender Raum'' (translated by MIT into English as ''Calculating_Space'', 1970). Since the publication of Stephen_Wolfram's book ''A_New_Kind_of_Science'', this idea has attracted a lot of attention, since there is no compelling physical evidence against Zuse's thesis. Critics of Wolfram's work claim that the fundamental ideas are essentially due to Zuse. Between 1987 and 1989, Zuse recreated the Z1, suffering a heart-attack midway through the project. The final result had 30,000 components, cost 800,000 DM, and required four individuals (including Zuse) to assemble it. Funding for this Retrocomputing project was provided by Siemens and a consortium of around five companies. Zuse received several awards for his work. After he retired, he focused on his hobby, painting. Zuse died on December_18 1995 in Hünfeld, Germany, near Fulda. ==References== * Zuse, Konrad (1993). ''The Computer – My Life.'' Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0387564535. (translated from the original German edition (1984): ''Der Computer – Mein Lebenswerk.'' Springer. ISBN 3-540-56292-3.) * Zuse, Konrad (1969). ''Rechnender Raum'' Braunschweig: Vieweg & Sohn. ISBN 3528096098 * [ftp://ftp.idsia.ch/pub/juergen/zuse67scan.pdf ''Rechnender Raum''] as PDF document ==See also== * Z1 * Z2 * Z3 * Z4 * Digital_philosophy ==External links== * The Life and Work of Konrad Zuse – By Prof. Horst Zuse (K. Zuse's son); an extensive and well-written historical account * MacTutor biography * Konrad Zuse Internet Archive * Technical University of Berlin * Free University of Berlin * Konrad Zuse * Konrad Zuse, inventor of first working programmable computer * Zuse's thesis of digital physics and the computable universe * Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin * Computermuseum Kiel Z11 * Computermuseum Kiel Z22 * Computermuseum Kiel Z25 Zuse, Konrad Zuse, Konrad Zuse, Konrad Zuse, Konrad Zuse, Konrad Zuse, Konrad Zuse, Konrad Zuse, Konrad Ar:كونراد_سوزه Da:Konrad_Zuse De:Konrad_Zuse Es:Konrad_Zuse Fr:Konrad_Zuse Hr:Konrad_Zuse It:Konrad_Zuse Lb:Konrad_Zuse Lt:Konradas_Cūzė Nl:Konrad_Zuse No:Konrad_Zuse Ja:コンラッド・ツーゼ Pl:Konrad_Zuse Pt:Konrad_Zuse Ru:Цузе,_Конрад Fi:Konrad_Zuse Sv:Konrad_Zuse