Germans claim first programmable computer

Zardon · Jun 2, 2004, 01:49 PM

The Brits may have beaten the Americans, but it seems we were both pipped by the Germans. No, not football. Computers.

Colossus was not, in fact, the world's first programmable computer: that particular distinction belongs to the Z3, built in 1941 by Konrad Zuse, a German civil engineer.

When Zuse met with the Colossus team in the 1980 and the two groups compared notes, they found they had all been working along very similar lines.

The Z3 was based on a binary floating-point number and switching system. It could perform between three and four additions per second, and could multiply in around five seconds. The program was fed in on a old movie film punched with holes, as paper was in short supply. It could perform basic arithmetic: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and it could calculate square roots.

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Jun 2, 2004, 01:49 PM	#1
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,481 Rep Power: 162	Germans claim first programmable computer The Brits may have beaten the Americans, but it seems we were both pipped by the Germans. No, not football. Computers. Colossus was not, in fact, the world's first programmable computer: that particular distinction belongs to the Z3, built in 1941 by Konrad Zuse, a German civil engineer. When Zuse met with the Colossus team in the 1980 and the two groups compared notes, they found they had all been working along very similar lines. The Z3 was based on a binary floating-point number and switching system. It could perform between three and four additions per second, and could multiply in around five seconds. The program was fed in on a old movie film punched with holes, as paper was in short supply. It could perform basic arithmetic: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and it could calculate square roots. register