Zuse Z4 manual

[Didier Lachieze]

Were you looking for the User Manual of the world's oldest surviving computer?

Lucky you, it has just been discovered

But you need to speak German: Gebrauchsanweizung Z4

"At the time, the Z4 was a powerful machine. It could run addition and subtraction in half a second, multiplication in 3 seconds, and perform division and square roots in six seconds. It averaged 1,000 mathematical operations an hour."

[EdS2]

An excellent find!

[Luigi Vampa]

Phantastisch!

[Martin Hepperle]

(09-23-2020 07:53 PM)Didier Lachieze Wrote:  ...
Lucky you, it has just been discovered
...

The first article says "The Z4 was the last computer the Nazis invented." - yes, the world (and the "journalists" mind) is so simple!

Otherwise: thank you for the links and the interesting story and documents. Who is writing the Z4 emulator for the HP-41C? 23 bit accuracy and 64 registers?

Martin

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(09-24-2020 11:10 AM)Martin Hepperle Wrote:  The first article says "The Z4 was the last computer the Nazis invented." - yes, the world (and the "journalists" mind) is so simple!

I stopped reading the article after that sentence. Konrad Zuse invented the Z4. Not "The Nazis". They were far too stupid to invent anything.

[Thomas Okken]

That manual was written by the ETH Zürich, though, not by Zuse. Secondary material intended for students perhaps?

(09-24-2020 11:10 AM)Martin Hepperle Wrote:  The first article says "The Z4 was the last computer the Nazis invented." - yes, the world (and the "journalists" mind) is so simple!

The phrasing is not great, but if you parse "the Nazis" as "Nazi Germany," it's not wrong, and presenting the work of certain people of country X as the work of country X is pretty common practice. Unfortunately.

[Paul Berger (Canada)]

(09-24-2020 12:26 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Hello!

(09-24-2020 11:10 AM)Martin Hepperle Wrote:  The first article says "The Z4 was the last computer the Nazis invented." - yes, the world (and the "journalists" mind) is so simple!

I stopped reading the article after that sentence. Konrad Zuse invented the Z4. Not "The Nazis". They were far too stupid to invent anything.

According to Zuse's autobiography by the time he started work on the Z4 (1942) he had established a company to build his machines and was the only person allowed to develop computing equipment. At the same time he was working for the air ministry at Henschel and the only machine he delivered to them was a specialized machine to do wing calculations. Z4 was completed after he had evacuated from Berlin to Gottingen and then later with Von Braun's team to a small village in Bravaria, where they captured by the Allies. Apparently the Z4 was examined buy the British but did not think anything of it.

[rprosperi]

(09-24-2020 12:26 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Hello!

(09-24-2020 11:10 AM)Martin Hepperle Wrote:  The first article says "The Z4 was the last computer the Nazis invented." - yes, the world (and the "journalists" mind) is so simple!

I stopped reading the article after that sentence. Konrad Zuse invented the Z4. Not "The Nazis". They were far too stupid to invent anything.

Today, most people that have not studied WWII Germany think that all Germans were Nazis, thus offending virtually all Germans.

But, there were some that were none too stupid, among them Speer, Von Braun, Porsche, Guderian, and even Heydrich. Misguided, opportunistic, power-seeking, denying some obvious truths, etc. all yes. But stupid, no.

[toml_12953]

(09-24-2020 12:26 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Hello!

(09-24-2020 11:10 AM)Martin Hepperle Wrote:  The first article says "The Z4 was the last computer the Nazis invented." - yes, the world (and the "journalists" mind) is so simple!

I stopped reading the article after that sentence. Konrad Zuse invented the Z4. Not "The Nazis". They were far too stupid to invent anything.

Wernher von Braun was a member of the Nazi party and even joined the SS. His inventions got us to the moon. You can't classify all Nazis as stupid. Many were very intelligent people who were duped by Hitler and got caught up in a herd mentality. Many advances in science and technology were helped by Nazis. While no rational person condones what the Nazis did as far as the Shoah (Holocaust), don't discount everything they did.

[pinkman]

Having written “during the nazi regime” would have been a better expression, but as said above I don’t think, when reading, that there were any connotations of any kind in the phrase.
The story of Germany is much more complex than simply describing it as the country where this terrible time happened. It is to be noted that scientific research was enhanced by this regime only if it served its evil and warlike purpose. Otherwise the scientists were ignored or exiled.

This computer is really impressive.

[Karl-Ludwig Butte]

For someone who met Konrad Zuse personally, listened to one of his lectures and spoke with him, the article in "Vice" is more than unacceptable. But others have already written enough in this regard.

For those who want to know the true story, Konrad Zuse's book "The computer - My Life" is recommended. It is available e.g. here..

The original Z4 can bee seen in =Zuse&sword_list[]=Z4&no_cache=1]Munich at Deutsches Museum.

By the way: Zuses machines worked with RPN, although they didn't have a 4-Level.Stack.

Best regards

Karl