Researchers Found the Manual For the World's Oldest Surviving Computer

'Researchers will be able to gain a deeper understanding of what's considered the world's oldest surviving (digital) computer after its long-lost user manual was unearthed. Engadget reports: The Z4, which was built in 1945, runs on tape, takes up most of a room and needs several people to operate it. The machine now takes residence at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, but it hasn't been used in quite some time. An archivist at ETH Zurich, Evelyn Boesch, discovered the manual among her father's documents in March, according to retired lecturer Herbert Bruderer. Rene Boesch worked with the Swiss Aeronautical Engineering Association, which was based at the university's Institute for Aircraft Statics and Aircraft Construction. The Z4 was housed there in the early 1950s. Among Boesch's documents were notes on math problems the Z4 solved that were linked to the development of the P-16 jet fighter. "These included calculations on the trajectory of rockets, on aircraft wings, on flutter vibrations [and] on nosedive," Bruderer wrote in a Association of Computing Machinery blog post.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/20/09/23/2058222 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

On Thu, 24 Sep 2020 12:54:10 +1200, Peter Reutemann quoted:
'The Z4, which was built in 1945 ...'
“Z” for “Zuse” <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse>. He also created his own programming language, “Plankalkül”, which was designed around direct bit manipulation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl>. Though it seems like no actual compiler/assembler was ever implemented for it. Also it didn’t help that the Allies forbade the Germans from continuing to build computers for some time after WWII was over. Some more details about the Z4: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z4_(computer)>. It was taken from Berlin to Göttingen in February 1945 to stop it from falling into the hands of the Soviets, and continued in use for a few years after. Based on the specs in that article, it consumed about 4Wh (14.4kJ) of electricity per floating-point computation.
participants (2)
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro
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Peter Reutemann