Zuse Z3: The Relay Paradigm
The second of Kurzweil's computing paradigms.
Explore this event on the interactive timeline →Designed by German engineer Konrad Zuse, the Z3 was the world's first working programmable, fully automatic digital computer. It represents Kurzweil's Second Paradigm of computing, as it was built entirely out of 2,600 electromechanical telephone relays.
Verified Facts
- Because it used physical relays that had to click open and shut, it operated at a clock speed of about 5.3 Hz (five operations per second).
- Zuse requested funding from the German government to replace the relays with faster vacuum tubes, but was denied because they believed World War II would be won before he could finish it.
- The original Z3 was destroyed by an Allied bombing raid on Berlin in 1943.