Researched
Programmable Computer (Zuse Z3)
Konrad Zuse’s Z3 (1941) is the first working, freely programmable digital computer; tube machines like ENIAC follow.
Open in the interactive tree →Zuse built the Z3 in Berlin from about 2,600 telephone relays; it computed in binary with floating point. In Britain the tube machine Colossus (1943/44) broke German radio ciphers, and in 1945/46 ENIAC went into service in the US (around 5,000 additions per second). In 1945 John von Neumann described the stored-program architecture still used today; the first such program ran in Manchester in 1948.
Prerequisites
- Analytical Engine & Punch Cards1837
- Boolean Algebra1854Computer circuits are built from Boolean logic gates
- Telephone1876Zuse's Z3 was built from telephone relays
- Vacuum Tube (Triode)1906
- Turing Machine1936
Unlocks
- Stored-Program Computer (von Neumann)1945
- Linear Programming (Simplex Method)1947
- Monte Carlo Methods1949
- Numerical Weather Prediction1950
- Turing Test & Birth of AI1950
- CNC & Numerical Control1952
- Machine Translation1954Translation needs a machine that can store a dictionary and rules.
- Cognitive Revolution1956
- Finite Element Method1956-1960Solving thousands of equations needs a computer
- Hard Disk Drive1956
- Programming Languages1957
- Industrial Robot (Unimate)1961
- Chaos Theory1963
- Computer-Aided Design1963
- Geographic Information Systems1963-1968Maps were turned into data a mainframe could store and compute on.
- Density Functional Theory1965
- Fast Fourier Transform1965
- Packet Switching1965
- Climate Models1967The first climate models were simulations that ran on digital computers
- Mouse and Graphical Interface1968
- Moon Landing1969Apollo's guidance computer flew the descent and landing
- The Internet1969
- Relational Database1970
- CT and MRI Scanning1971
- Complexity Theory & NP1971
- Protein Data Bank1971An electronic archive that scientists could search from afar.
- Fractal Geometry1975-1982Mandelbrot's pictures needed IBM computers to draw.
- Four Colour Theorem Proved1976
- Public-Key Cryptography1976
- Deep-Space Probes (Voyager)1977
- Quantum Computing Concept1981-1985Feynman's argument is about what classical computers cannot simulate.
- 3D Printing (Additive Manufacturing)1984
- Exoplanet Discovery1995
- Human Genome Project & Sequencing2003
- Formal Proofs (Lean, Rocq)2005-2026
- 3D Printing in Production2016–2026
- Fusion: Ignition & Records2022–2026
- Self-Replicating Factoryopen