Z1 (computer) - Design

Design

The Z1 contained almost all parts of a modern computer, i.e. control unit, memory, micro sequences, floating point logic (the Boolean logic unit was not realized) and input-output devices. The Z1 was freely programmable via punched tape and a punched tape reader. There was a clear separation between the punched tape reader, the control unit for supervising the whole machine and the execution of the instructions, the arithmetic unit, and the input and output devices.

The Z1 was a 22-bit floating point value adder and subtracter, with some control logic to make it capable of more complex operations such as multiplication (by repeated additions) and division (by repeated subtractions). The Z1's instruction set had nine instructions and it took between one and twenty cycles per instruction.

The Z1 had a 64-word floating point memory, where each word of memory could be read from - and written to - by the control unit. The mechanical memory units were unique in their design and were patented by Konrad Zuse in 1936. The machine was only capable of executing instructions while reading from the punched tape reader, so the program itself was not loaded in its entirety into internal memory in advance.

The input and output were in decimal numbers, with a decimal exponent and the units had special machinery for converting these to and from binary numbers. The input and output instructions would be read or written as floating point numbers. The program tape was 35 mm film with the instructions encoded in punched holes.

Read more about this topic:  Z1 (computer)

Famous quotes containing the word design:

    I begin with a design for a hearse.
    For Christ’s sake not black—
    nor white either—and not polished!
    Let it be weathered—like a farm wagon—
    William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)

    Humility is often only the putting on of a submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a more calculated sort of pride, which debases itself with a design of being exalted; and though this vice transform itself into a thousand several shapes, yet the disguise is never more effectual nor more capable of deceiving the world than when concealed under a form of humility.
    François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)

    We find that Good and Evil happen alike to all Men on this Side of the Grave; and as the principle Design of Tragedy is to raise Commiseration and Terror in the Minds of the Audience, we shall defeat this great End, if we always make Virtue and Innocence happy and successful.
    Joseph Addison (1672–1719)