of symbolic logic, numerical analysis, electrical engineering, and a mechanical version
of human thought processes.
His idea became known as the Turing machine, a simple computer that performed
one small, deterministic step at a time. It is often thought of as the precursor to the
modern electronic digital computer, and its principles have been used for application
in the study of artificial intelligence, the structure of languages, and pattern recogni-
tion. (For more on Alan Turing, see “History of Mathematics.”)Who built the first mechanical binary computer?
German civil engineer Konrad Zuse (1910–1995) built the Z1—often thought of as the
first mechanical binary computer—in his parent’s living room around 1938. His goal
was to build a machine that would perform the lengthy and tedious calculations need-
ed to design building structures. His computer’s design stored intermediate results in
its memory and performed sequences of arithmetic operations that he programmed
on punched paper tape (he initially used old movie film). This machine led to the Z3
in 1941. Considered by some to be the first large-scale, fully functional automatic dig-
ital computer, the computer used a binary number system.What were some highlightsin the developmentof modern computers?
The first general-purpose analog computer was designed in 1930 by American scien-
tist Vannevar Bush (1890–1974), who built a mechanically operated device called a dif-
ferential analyzer. The first semi-electronic digital computing device was built by
mathematician and physicist John Vincent Atanassoff (1903–1995) and one of his
graduate students, Clifford E. Berry (1918–1963), between 1937 and 1942. It was cre-
ated primarily to solve large systems of simultaneous linear equations. It is interesting
to note that Atanassoff’s computer was overshadowed by the Electronic Numerical
362 Integrator and Computer (ENIAC; see below), which was once credited as the first
Why was Alan Turing so important to the development of computers?
L
iving in his native England during World War II, Alan Turing was instrumen-
tal in deciphering German messages encrypted by the Enigma cipher
machine. Shortly after the war, he designed computers—first for the British gov-
ernment (1945 to 1948), then for the University of Manchester (1948 to 1954). He
also wrote several works on the field of artificial intelligence, a study in its infancy
at the time, and developed the theory of the Turing test, in which a computer is
tested to see if it is capable of humanlike thought. Tragically, Turing, who is often
considered the founder of computer science, committed suicide in 1954.