Electronic Pioneers

Spring 2022

Introduction

A century after Babbage, in the 1930s and 1940s, there were multiple, independent efforts to build electronic computers. A strong case can be made that Konrad Zuse built the first modern computers, though wartime secrecy in Germany meant that researchers in the US didn't learn of his work until years later. The first paper below is an overview of the architecture of Zuse's Z1 and Z3 machines. The second paper is a report by John von Neumann and colleagues in 1946 as they were designing EDVAC, and summarizes the group's thoughts about the state of the art. Von Neumann was involved in the construction of several early machines in this country, and was one of the most influential researchers of the era. Read at least to the end of page 9 (page 16 of the PDF). The third paper is optional, but gives a little more historical context on Zuse in case you're curious.

Questions

As before, when reading these papers, don't get too hung up on the low-level details. I'm more interested in having you come away from the readings with the Big Picture. Here are some questions you might try to answer as you read:

Papers