The Computer - My Life

Konrad Zuse is one of the great pioneers of the computer age. He created the first stored-program computer in 1941 and continued to build machines for a quarter-century, as well as writing books and articles. This is his autobiography - lively, witty, full of fascinating asides.

1 Ancestors and parents Early childhood memories School days Metropolis Abitur. - 2 Studies (not without detours and by-ways) and general studies First inventions The Akademischer Verein Motiv Student life between science and politics. - 3 The early years of the computer (and a digression on its prehistory) Colleagues remember From mechanics to electromechanics Schreyer s electronic computing machine First outside contacts Thoughts on the future. - 4 Outbreak of the war and (first) call-up Structural engineer in aircraft construction The Z2 and Z3 Second call-up Zuse Ingenieurbüro und Apparatebau, Berlin The first process computer. - 5 Origins of the Z4 News from the United States Attempt at a Ph. D. dissertation Computing machine for logic operations Final months of the war in Berlin The evacuation Z4 completed in Göttingen Final war days in the Allgäu. - 6 End of the war Refugees in Hinterstein The Plankalkül The computing universe Automation and self-reproducing systems A logarithmic computing machine Computer development in Germany and the United States Move to Hopferau near Füssen The mill of the Patent Office. - 7 The Zuse-Ingenieurbüro, Hopferau bei Füssen First business partners: IBM and Remington Rand The first pipelining design Founding of ZUSE KG in Neukirchen The Z4 in the ETH in Zurich The computer in Europe: taking stock Lost opportunities The first German contract: the Z5. - 8 The partners leave Computing machine for land use zoning Electronics gains acceptance First funds from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Losing one s way (and possibly a lost opportunity) The arrayprocessor Custom work for geodesists The Graphomat Z64 Growth and crisis of ZUSE KG The end. - 9 Free for science (again) Honors A look to the future. - Appendices. - 1. From Forms to Program Control. - 2. Construction of Devices. - 3. On Computer Architecture. - 4. On the Plan Calculus. - 5. Lecture on the Occasion of the Award of the Honorary Doctorate by the Technical University of Berlin (Extract). - 6. The Computer Did Not Fall from Heaven. - Notes. - References. - Name Index. - Computer Index.