The Z4 was the world's first commercial digital computer, designed by German engineer Konrad Zuse and built by his company Zuse Apparatebau between 1942 and 1945.[1]
In 1944 Zuse was working on the Z4 with around two dozen people, including several women.[2] Some engineers who worked at the telecommunications facility of the OKW also worked for Zuse as a secondary occupation. To prevent it from falling into the hands of the Soviets, the Z4 was evacuated from Berlin in February 1945 and transported to Göttingen.[3][4] The Z4 was completed in Göttingen in a facility of the Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt (AVA, Aerodynamic Research Institute), which was headed by Albert Betz. But when it was presented to scientists of the AVA the roar of the approaching front could already be heard,[5] so the computer was transported with a truck of the Wehrmacht to Hinterstein in Bad Hindelang, where Konrad Zuse met Wernher von Braun.[5][6]
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The Z4 design which extended the Z3 was Zuse's final concept and the computer he intended to sell.[7]
| Name | First operational | Numeral system | Computing mechanism | Programming | Turing complete |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zuse Z3 (Germany) | May 1941 | Binary floating point | Electro-mechanical | Program-controlled by punched 35 mm film stock (but no conditional branch) | In theory (1998) |
| Atanasoff–Berry Computer (US) | 1942 | Binary | Electronic | Not programmable—single purpose | No |
| Colossus Mark 1 (UK) | February 1944 | Binary | Electronic | Program-controlled by patch cables and switches | No |
| Harvard Mark I – IBM ASCC (US) | May 1944 | Decimal | Electro-mechanical | Program-controlled by 24-channel punched paper tape (but no conditional branch) | No |
| Colossus Mark 2 (UK) | June 1944 | Binary | Electronic | Program-controlled by patch cables and switches | In theory (2011) |
| Zuse Z4 (Germany) | March 1945 | Binary floating point | Electro-mechanical | Program-controlled by punched 35 mm film stock | Yes |
| ENIAC (US) | July 1946 | Decimal | Electronic | Program-controlled by patch cables and switches | Yes |
| Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (Baby) (UK) | June 1948 | Binary | Electronic | Stored-program in Williams cathode ray tube memory | Yes |
| Modified ENIAC (US) | September 1948 | Decimal | Electronic | Read-only stored programming mechanism using the Function Tables as program ROM | Yes |
| EDSAC (UK) | May 1949 | Binary | Electronic | Stored-program in mercury delay line memory | Yes |
| Manchester Mark 1 (UK) | October 1949 | Binary | Electronic | Stored-program in Williams cathode ray tube memory and magnetic drum memory | Yes |
| CSIRAC (Australia) | November 1949 | Binary | Electronic | Stored-program in mercury delay line memory | Yes |
In 1949 the Swiss mathematician Eduard Stiefel, after coming back from a stay in the USA where he inspected American computers, visited Zuse and the Z4. When he formulated a differential equation for Zuse, who immediately programmed the Z4 to solve it, Stiefel decided to acquire the computer for his institution in Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich).[8]
It was delivered to ETH Zurich in September 1950. In 1954, the Z4 was transferred to the Institut Franco-Allemand des Recherches de St. Louis (Franco-German Institute of Research) in France, where it was in use until 1959. Today, the Z4 is on display in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
The Z4 inspired the ETH to build its own computer (mainly by A. Speiser and E. Stiefel), which was called ERMETH, an acronym for German: Elektronische Rechenmaschine ETH ("Electronic Computing Machine ETH").
| “ | At least Zürich has an interesting nightlife with the rattling of the Z4, even if it is only modest. | ” |
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—Konrad Zuse |
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In 1950/1951 the Z4 was the only working digital computer in continental Europe, and the second digital computer in the world to be sold, beating the Ferranti Mark 1 by five months and the UNIVAC I by ten months, but in turn being beaten by the BINAC (although that never worked at the customer's site[9]). Other computers, all numbered with a leading Z, were built by Zuse and his company. Notable are the Z11, which was sold to the optics industry and to universities, and the Z22, the first computer with a memory based on magnetic storage.
The Z4 was used for calculations for work on the Grande Dixence Dam.
By 1967, the Zuse KG had built a total of 251 computers. Due to financial problems, the company was then sold to Siemens.
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