Z3

The third computer designed and built by {Konrad

Zuse} and the first computer to successfully run real

programs. The computer was ready in 1941, five years before

{ENIAC}.

Zuse began his work on program-driven calculating machines in

1935. His two predessors of the Z3, the Z1 and Z2, were

unsuccessful mechanical calculating machines. The Z3 was

delivered to the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt f�r Luftfahrt

(German Experimental Department of Aironautics) in Berlin and

was used for deciphering coded messages. In 1998, there may

still be models of Z3 in museums [where?].

The Z3 used about 2600 relays of the kind used in

telecommunications. Zuse wrote and implemented the language

{Plankalk�l} on the Z3. Programs were punched into cinefilm.

Zuse built some more computers after World War II, including

the Z3's successor, the Z4, which was set up at ETH Zurich,

Switzerland.

[Features? Where was it designed? Contemporaries?

References?]

(1999-11-16)