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Konrad Zuse

• The Person
  • Engineer
  • Artist
  • Innovator
  • Awards
• Zuse-Computer
  • His aims
  • Die Z1
    • Architecture
    • Operating mode
  • The Z2
  • The Z3
    • Architecture
    • Operating mode
  • The Z4
  • Z22,Z23,Z25&Z64
• After Zuse
• Learning success control
  • Muliple Choice Person
  • Muliple Choice Computers
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Operating mode

Plates of the original Z1 from 1937

The Z1

was the first computer based on binary numbers, so the machine needs only two conditions instead of ten as decimal system. The input and output was with decimal numbers with mantises and exponents with the help of an input panel. The machine converts in the mechanical unit the decimal numbers into binary floating-point numbers. For the output the machine converted it into decimal numbers, so an output as a decimal mantissa and exponent by using lamps was possible. The freely programmable (processing of any sequence of instructions) results from the possibility of reading of perforated filmstrip on a paper tape reader. Totally eight commands be stamped on this filmstrip. That's the program of the Z1.

Executable were the following commands:

• Read a number from memory
• Write a number to the memory
• Convert binary to decimal and revers
• Umwandlung einer Binärzahl in eine Dezimalzahl
• Addition
• Subtraction
• Multiplication
• Division

The real calculation was realized in an arithmetic unit with one adder for the exponent and one for the mantissa. The Z1 needs about three seconds for an addition. A long calculation could not be performed, because of the unreliability of the complex mechanical structure. The machine was not determined for practical usage, because of the rough and imprecise mechanic is jammed in the storage elements and arithmetic unit.