Z1 Computer History

The history of the modern computer is relatively new. What we think of today of computers was not even brought into the world until the 1940’s. If it was not for the competitiveness of World War II, we could be thirty years behind where we are today. The need for faster, more efficient ways of computation and communication developed into a contest for who would have the biggest advantage in war by ways of technology. This race between the great world powers of the United States, Britain, and Germany is what ultimately helped decide who won the war. These computers were used for two major war related problems: “ one was the problem among the various combatants to be able to read the other side’s radio messages”(Miller 41), messages could be easily intercepted over radio, but the code-cracking aspect brought along many issues as the coding devices used were very advanced. The other important issue for computers was calculating trajectories for guns and missiles. Being able to calculate exactly where to aim a gun based on distance and conditions proved to be a very important …show more content…
Most notably are Konrad Zuse’s machines. The “Z” machines were designed in Berlin between 1936 and 1941. Zuse’s Z1 machine has been called the first computer in the world. “His decision to build the machines were for exploiting the main ideas of working with binary numbers and the control unit being separated from the storage”(Rojas Konrad, 5). The Z1 was the first programmable computer of German history. Although it was unreliable “the Z1 showed that the architectural design was sound, which compelled Zuse to investigate other kinds of technology”(Rojas First, 239). Zuse would soon start to build the Z2, Z3, and Z4; these machines would become more and more advanced through both their hardware and software as Zuse began to further understand