Z3 electromechanical computer
Computadora electromecánica Z3
- Date
- 1941 · confidence high
- Place
- Berlin (Kreuzberg), Germany
- Credited to
- Konrad Zuse (mechanical Z1, 1938; Z3 with 2,600 relays, 12-5-1941)
- People
- 👤 Konrad Zuse1910–1995
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
First working programmable, automatic digital computer, binary and floating-point, built with telephone relays. Programmed by punched tape.
Destroyed in a bombing raid in 1943. Its Turing completeness was demonstrated in 1998; it competes with the Harvard Mark I (1944) and Atanasoff-Berry's ABC (1942, non-programmable).
What it led to
- The concept of a general-purpose programmable computer
- Plankalkül, the first high-level programming language (1945)
- The German computer industry (Zuse KG)
Built on
- Boolean algebra1847-1854
- Hollerith punched card1884–1890
- Electromagnetic relay
Made possible
- Z41942-1945
- Programming languages
- Floating-point arithmetic