Zuse Z4 - Oldest Surviving Computer in the World - Lost in the archives

dwight dkelvey at hotmail.com
Thu Oct 1 12:20:17 CDT 2020


It is going to need a lot of contact cleaning.
The one thing I like is the carry design the Zuse used. Really fast for relays but not of much use for solid state.
Dwight

________________________________
From: cctech <cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of osi.superboard via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 1, 2020 6:07 AM
To: cctech at classiccmp.org <cctech at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Zuse Z4 - Oldest Surviving Computer in the World - Lost in the archives

A few days ago, it was published on BLOC at CACM that a lost user manual
for the Z4 and notes on flutter calculations was found in the ETH Zürich
archives. See:
https://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/247521-discovery-user-manual-of-the-oldest-surviving-computer-in-the-world/fulltext

Zuse Z4, a relay computer of 1945,  however, due to lack of
documentation, its functionality was largely unknown. Now a manual for
the machine has appeared at ETH Zurich, that was buried in the archives.
And this in the digital age ...

Thomas



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