Computers of the Second World: from Z2 to Harvard Mark I
It turns out that the first computer in history was developed by the German Konrad Zuse in 1940, it was called Z2. Despite the fact that the first PC was created in Nazi Germany, they lost the war. Unfortunately, the prototype of that computer was destroyed during the bombing of Berlin in 1944, only the drawings remained.
1940th year - The mention of the beginning of the “great computer era” dates back to 1940, when Konrad Zuse founded Zuse Apparatebau in Berlin and created the Z2 computer, the first electromechanical computer in the world.
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1941th year - Zuze is building the world's first electronic programmable calculator Z3. It was built on 2600 electromechanical relays, RAM - 64 22-bit words (7 digits - order and 15 - mantissa). The program was introduced with 8-track punched tape, which was used as a conventional film. A binary number system and a unicast command system were used. Z3 performed 3.4 additions per second. This is the world's first implementation of the principle of software control. The original was destroyed during the war by Allied forces. It seems that they deliberately destroyed all the models of the talented German. Through the efforts of other talented and hard-nosed Germans, the reconstructed model can be seen in the German Museum in Munich.
1942 - It is clear that during the Great Patriotic War the Soviet Union was not up to computers, but the allies had interesting developments. So, in 1942, Americans John Atanasov and Clifford Edward Berry created the first electronic digital computer (Atanasoff-Berry Computer - ABC). Although this car was never completed (Atanasov went into the army), as historians say, it had a great influence on John Mauchly, who created the Eniac computer two years later. Apparently, from here and grow the feet of the corporation ABC.
1943 - The following year, England joined the computer-arms race. In the town of Bletchley Park, a computer Colossus was created to decrypt the encryption of the German mechanical encryption machine Enigma. The car counted 2,000 vacuum tubes and worked at a fantastic speed, processing about 25,000 characters per second. By the way, it was Colossus that was used when planning the Allied troops landing in Normandy (D-Day). The development team included an outstanding mathematician Alan Turing. By the end of the war 10 such cars were built. The development and composition of the team were kept secret until 1970, and the decryption algorithms are even longer. In 2004, the Colossus Mk2 reconstruction process was completed, started in the 90s by enthusiasts from the UK.
1944 - Harvard University professor Howard Aiken and subsequently famous Grace Hoper launched the first version of the Harvard Mark I computer in the US. It contained 72 23-bit digital registers and 60 registers for constants. Data was read from the tape; addition and subtraction operations took up to 6 s. A machine was used to calculate ballistic tables for firing, performing three-week work of three calculators in a day. The Americans then took the first position in the race of high-tech weapons.
1945 - In Germany, through the efforts of Zuse, a new computer model was created - the Z4, which already resembled modern computers in its architecture: memory and processor were separate devices, the processor could handle floating-point numbers, perform four basic arithmetic operations, and extract the square root. The program was stored on punched tape and read sequentially. In the last days of the war, the Z4 model was transported by truck and horses from Berlin to Göttingen, and then to Algi. She lay hidden in the stable for more than three years.
1945 - 46 The pinnacle of Zuse's military career was the development of the first algorithmic programming language Plankalkül (Plankalkuel - from plan calculus).
Of course, this race is not over, but the war ended, in which Soviet troops won and without any computers. On the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory!
1940th year - The mention of the beginning of the “great computer era” dates back to 1940, when Konrad Zuse founded Zuse Apparatebau in Berlin and created the Z2 computer, the first electromechanical computer in the world.
')
1941th year - Zuze is building the world's first electronic programmable calculator Z3. It was built on 2600 electromechanical relays, RAM - 64 22-bit words (7 digits - order and 15 - mantissa). The program was introduced with 8-track punched tape, which was used as a conventional film. A binary number system and a unicast command system were used. Z3 performed 3.4 additions per second. This is the world's first implementation of the principle of software control. The original was destroyed during the war by Allied forces. It seems that they deliberately destroyed all the models of the talented German. Through the efforts of other talented and hard-nosed Germans, the reconstructed model can be seen in the German Museum in Munich.
1942 - It is clear that during the Great Patriotic War the Soviet Union was not up to computers, but the allies had interesting developments. So, in 1942, Americans John Atanasov and Clifford Edward Berry created the first electronic digital computer (Atanasoff-Berry Computer - ABC). Although this car was never completed (Atanasov went into the army), as historians say, it had a great influence on John Mauchly, who created the Eniac computer two years later. Apparently, from here and grow the feet of the corporation ABC.
1943 - The following year, England joined the computer-arms race. In the town of Bletchley Park, a computer Colossus was created to decrypt the encryption of the German mechanical encryption machine Enigma. The car counted 2,000 vacuum tubes and worked at a fantastic speed, processing about 25,000 characters per second. By the way, it was Colossus that was used when planning the Allied troops landing in Normandy (D-Day). The development team included an outstanding mathematician Alan Turing. By the end of the war 10 such cars were built. The development and composition of the team were kept secret until 1970, and the decryption algorithms are even longer. In 2004, the Colossus Mk2 reconstruction process was completed, started in the 90s by enthusiasts from the UK.
1944 - Harvard University professor Howard Aiken and subsequently famous Grace Hoper launched the first version of the Harvard Mark I computer in the US. It contained 72 23-bit digital registers and 60 registers for constants. Data was read from the tape; addition and subtraction operations took up to 6 s. A machine was used to calculate ballistic tables for firing, performing three-week work of three calculators in a day. The Americans then took the first position in the race of high-tech weapons.
1945 - In Germany, through the efforts of Zuse, a new computer model was created - the Z4, which already resembled modern computers in its architecture: memory and processor were separate devices, the processor could handle floating-point numbers, perform four basic arithmetic operations, and extract the square root. The program was stored on punched tape and read sequentially. In the last days of the war, the Z4 model was transported by truck and horses from Berlin to Göttingen, and then to Algi. She lay hidden in the stable for more than three years.
1945 - 46 The pinnacle of Zuse's military career was the development of the first algorithmic programming language Plankalkül (Plankalkuel - from plan calculus).
Of course, this race is not over, but the war ended, in which Soviet troops won and without any computers. On the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/92997/
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