The Stored-Program Universal Computer: Did Zuse Anticipate Turing and von Neumann?

B. Jack Copeland () and Giovanni Sommaruga ()
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B. Jack Copeland: University of Canterbury, Department of Philosophy
Giovanni Sommaruga: The Turing Centre, ETH Zurich

A chapter in Turing’s Revolution, 2015, pp 43-101 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter sets out the early history of the stored-program concept. The several distinct ‘onion skins’ making up the concept emerged slowly over a ten-year period, giving rise to a number of different programming paradigms. A notation is developed for describing different aspects of the stored-program concept. Theoretical contributions by Turing, Zuse, Eckert, Mauchly, and von Neumann are analysed, followed by a comparative study of the first practical implementations of stored-programming, at the Aberdeen Ballistic Research Laboratory in the US and the University Manchester in the UK. Turing’s concept of universality is also examined, and an assessment is provided of claims that various historic computers—including Babbage’s Analytical Engine, Flowers’ Colossus and Zuse’s Z3—were universal. The chapter begins with a discussion of the work of the great German pioneer of computing, Konrad Zuse.

Keywords: ACE; Alan turing; Analytical engine; Automatic sequence controlled calculator; BINAC; Charles Babbage; Colossus; EDVAC; ENIAC; F.C. Williams; Henschel AG; History of computing; History of hardware; History of software; Howard Aiken; J. Presper Eckert; John Mauchly; John V. Atanasoff; John von Neumann; Konrad Zuse; M.H.A. Newman; Manchester Baby; Plankalkül; Richard Clippinger; Stored–program concept; Thomas H. Flowers; Thomas Haigh; Tom Kilburn; Universal Turing machine; Zuse KG; Z1; Z2; Z3; Z4; Z5; Z11; Z22; Z23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-22156-4_3

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