Computing · 1941

Zuse Z3

The first working programmable, fully automatic digital computer.

Built from about 2,600 telephone relays, the Z3 did binary floating-point arithmetic at roughly 5 Hz and read programs from punched film. It was destroyed in a 1943 air raid; a replica stands in Munich's Deutsches Museum.

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Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Electric telegraph 1837
Binary arithmetic 1703

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Fastest computer in the world Latest: 2.2×10¹⁸ operations per second (2026) Source: Wikipedia: List of fastest computers; Wikipedia: History of supercomputing

Computation per constant dollar, 1850-2006 Latest: 7.3B million units of computer power per 2006 $ (2003) Source: Nordhaus 2007, Two Centuries of Productivity Growth in Computing, J. Econ. Hist. 67(1), Table 6