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Konrad Zuse's Legacy: The Architecture of the Z1 and Z3
April-June 1997 (vol. 19 no. 2)
pp. 5-16
ASCII Text
x 
 
Raúl Rojas, "Konrad Zuse's Legacy: The Architecture of the Z1 and Z3," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 5-16, April-June, 1997.
 
 
BibTex
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@article{ 10.1109/85.586067,
author = {Raúl Rojas},
title = {Konrad Zuse's Legacy: The Architecture of the Z1 and Z3},
journal ={IEEE Annals of the History of Computing},
volume = {19},
number = {2},
issn = {1058-6180},
year = {1997},
pages = {5-16},
doi = {http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/85.586067},
publisher = {IEEE Computer Society},
address = {Los Alamitos, CA, USA},
}
 
 
RefWorks Procite/RefMan/Endnote
x 
 
TY - MGZN
JO - IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
TI - Konrad Zuse's Legacy: The Architecture of the Z1 and Z3
IS - 2
SN - 1058-6180
SP5
EP16
EPD - 5-16
A1 - Raúl Rojas,
PY - 1997
VL - 19
JA - IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
ER -
 

This paper 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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Citation:
Raúl Rojas, "Konrad Zuse's Legacy: The Architecture of the Z1 and Z3," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 5-16, April-June 1997, doi:10.1109/85.586067
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