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Childhood
*He was born in Berlin on June 22, 1910.
*His childhood involved movements from one place to another due to the nature of his father’s job who worked in the post office.
*His creativity was evident while in school which was indicated by his interest in artwork.
*He liked photography, sketching and painting illustrations of his environment and imaginations -
His studies
*After graduating from high school in Hoyerswerda. He studied at the Technische Hochschule Berlin-Charlottenburg.
*Zuse started studying mechanical engineering, changed to architecture, thought for some time of becoming a commercial graphic designer, and settled finally on civil engineering.
*He he obtained a degree in civil engineering in 1935. -
Z1 Machine
*Zuse studied civil engineering at University. His studies involved a lot of calculations and he eventually worked doing the same after graduating in 1935.
*He began his journey towards creating his first experimental calculating machine.
*It was based on a 22-bit floating type which did the additions and subtractions and processed complex operations.
*This machine was named Z1. Its programmability was limited and its operation was therefore rendered unreliable. -
Z2 Machine
*In 1939, Zuse worked on his second machine which was an improvement of Z1.
*Its processor retained its mechanical memory and utilized electromechanical relays.
*Development of Z2 was sponsored by Dr. Kurt Pannke who manufactured small calculating machines in Berlin.
*Zuse’s efforts to seek financing from the government failed. The German government was only interested in inventions that would help them in the warfare. -
S1 and S2 Computing Machines
*Alongside construction of Z3, Zuse built S1 and S2 computing machines for the government.
*They computed aerodynamics of the wings carrying flying bombs. -
Z3 Machine
*At the beginning of the Second World War, Zuse served the army. It was at this point that he made significant advancements in his innovations.
*With Government funding, he created Z3 and he was also involved in building of air defense machine.
*Z3 was built based on electromechanical relays, and it had a high clock frequency.
*The developments that Zuse had made were destroyed during the bombing of Berlin during War. -
Z4 Machine
*Based on the success of Z3, Zuse founded a company that dealt with the production of computers, Zuse KG.
*The first project of the company was a computing machine named Z4, an advancement of Z3.
*Z4 was used in calculating the aerodynamics of the Swiss jet fighters P-16 and N-20. -
Plankalkuel
*While constructing Z4, Zuse developed the first high-level programming language, known as, Plankalkül.
*He describes Plankalkül as the world's first higher-level programming language, containing many standard features of today's programming languages.
*Also, he used it to design world's first chess program. -
His Family
*Zuse married Gisela Brandes in January 1945.
*Their son Horst, the first of five children, was born in November 1945.
*Today Horst Zuse, the eldest of Zuse’s five children, is a professor at Berlin’s Technische Universität, where his father studied. -
The Entrepreneur
*In 1946, he found one of the earliest computer companies" the Zuse-Ingenieurbüro Hopferau", and he got the patents. -
After the World War II
*After the end of the Second World War, Zuse KG intensified its operations where it created a lot of computers named after the order of creation, Z5, Z11 etc.
*It was also involved in the reconstruction of the Z3 machine in the 1960s. Entry of American companies in Europe overpowered Zuse and it was later sold to Siemens whereby production of Zuse series was aborted. -
Self-Replicating Systems
*Konrad Zuse envisioned self-replicating systems which refer to the automation of manufacturing process in the construction industry. Such kind of machine can reproduce its structure automatically. http://zuse.zib.de/assemblyLineSelfReplicatingSystems -
Technological Achievement I
*While working on the innovation of computers, he made a technological achievement which refer to a mechanical switch mechanism operated by an electromagnet, and to the method that represents data approximation to accommodate a wide range of values such as Floating points in Z1, Z3, and Z4. -
Technological Achievement II
*Also, while he was working on the innovation of computers, he was thinking of data, so he notice that for entirety data calculation, the computing machines should be able to process logical operations, processed by a logic gate. A logic gate can either be constructed by mechanical components or transistors. They help in operating a logical operation “AND”, “OR” and “NOT”. Logic gates can be created using vacuum tubes (electronic components). -
Digital physics
*He was the first to suggest that the universe itself is running on a grid of computers.
*He published the book which is "Calculating Space". -
Helix-Tower
*He also worked on a prototype that can be used in tower construction. It was referred to as the Helix-Tower ( http://zuse.zib.de/helixTower ). He completed the prototype in 1992. He envisioned the tower to be useful in installation of wind power, radio transmission and for making observations at higher heights. -
The Conclusion
*He died in December 1995 (aged 85)
*The ability of Zuse to work on his imaginations in order to create a reality has led to great technological advancements. This has led to the simplification of tasks especially in the computation of data.
*However, the Second World War contributed to the non-recognition by America and the United Kingdom. His innovation was significant on the development of the high-level programming.
