12 May
2018
12 May
'18
5:04 p.m.
On Fri, May 11, 2018 at 6:21 PM, Dave Horsfall <dave(a)horsfall.org> wrote:
Way back on this day in 1941, Conrad Zuse unveiled the
Z3; it was the
first programmable automatic computer as we know it (Colossus 1 was not
general-purpose). The last news I heard about the Z3 was that she was
destroyed in an air-raid...
This pretty much started computing, as we know it.
Again be careful -- we don't want to go down that rat hole. There has
been always been an argument since it (as well as Atanasoff and Aiken's
machines all) lacks a conditional branch. Although, I do believe some
one the UK proved the Z3 to be Turing complete; but the argument will
always be there.
What I tell people is that Babbage theorized the computational device and
Lady Ada extended the theorized to general programmability (to play music
I believe) but it was never built and she and Babbage argued a bit about
it. The Loom folks demonstrated that the idea programmability was
possible. Zuse put the two idea together and reduce it practice.
But .. until we also include a conditional branch the ability to do self
modify code we don't really have the machine with think of as the automatic
programmable computer.
Check out:
http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/rojas/1993/Who_invented_the_computer.pdf its a
fun read.
There is a nice table in it:
Machine Memory & CPU Separated Conditional Branching
Soft or Hard Programming Support Self Modify Indirect
Addressing
Babbage yes
yes soft
proposed no
Zuse yes
no soft
no no
Atanasoff yes
no hard
no no
Aiken Mark1 no
no soft
no no
ENIAC no
partial hard
no no
Manchester yes
yes soft
yes no