Konrad Zuse's Legacy: The Architecture of the Z1 and Z3
Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE, 19 (2):
5 -16 (April 1997)DOI: 10.1109/85.586067
Abstract
Provides a detailed description of the architecture of the Z1 and
Z3 computing machines that Konrad Zuse designed in Berlin between 1936
and 1941. The necessary basic information was obtained from a careful
evaluation of the patent application Zuse filed in 1941. Additional
insight was gained from a software simulation of the machine's logic.
The Z1 was built using purely mechanical components; the Z3 used
electromechanical relays. However, both machines shared a common logical
structure, and their programming model was the same. I argue that both
the Z1 and the Z3 possessed features akin to those of modern computers:
the memory and processor were separate units, and the processor could
handle floating-point numbers and compute the four basic arithmetical
operations as well as the square root of a number. The program was
stored on punched tape and was read sequentially. In the last section of
this paper, I put the architecture of the Z1 and Z3 into historical
perspective by offering a comparison with computing machines built in
other countries
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