Text 1. The First Computer
Fig. 1. Zuse Z1
While there was no single person that is widely credited with inventing the computer, many view Konrad Zuse and his Z1 machine as the first in a long line of innovations that have given us the computer of today. Konrad Zuse was a German whose claim to fame is the creation of the first freely programmable mechanical computing device in 1936. Zuse’s Z1 was the first of a long line of calculators. Zuse’s Z1 was created with a focus on 3 basic elements that are still necessary in today’s calculators: have a control, to have a memory to store the results and to perform calculations. Later Konrad Zuse created the Z2 and Z3. The innovations to his computers were quite important. The Z2 was the first fully functioning electromagnetic computer and the Z3 was the first fully electronic and digital computer that included the ability to be programmed. The Z3 was programmed with a binary floating point number and switching system. It even included storage which used tape in the form of old movie reels. In those days most business machines used punched paper, however in Germany at the time, paper was extremely expensive.
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