Heinz Zemanek | |
|---|---|
 Heinz Zemanek in 2007 | |
| Born | 1 January 1920 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | 16 July 2014 (aged 94) Vienna, Austria |
| Alma mater | Vienna University of Technology |
| Known for | Mailüfterl, PL/I |
| Awards | Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class (2005) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer Scientist |
| Institutions | Vienna University of Technology, IBM |
Heinz Zemanek (actually Heinrich Josef Zemanek) (1 January 1920 – 16 July 2014) was an Austrian computer pioneer who led the development, from 1954 to 1958, of one of the first complete transistorised computers on the European continent.[1] The computer was nicknamed Mailüfterl — Viennese for "May breeze" — in reference to Whirlwind, a computer developed at MIT between 1945 and 1951.
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Mailüfterl: an Austrian star of European computing
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Transcription
At that time in America attempts had been made to make very fast computers however less with transistors, more with valves So correspondingly they were given names like Typhoon or Whirlwind and such like Zemanek's remark was "fine, so in Vienna we won't build a Typhoon but it'll be a Viennese May breeze instead" An Austrian Star of European Computing The Mailüfterl started in Gusshausstrasse at the Technical University I had this strange opportunity as I had no boss Zemanek was assistant professor at the university and essentially took advantage of the circumstances to become de facto head of the Institute I simply took the liberty to build a computer and no one stopped me Physically the Mailüfterl fits inside a fairly large frame that's over two metres high and several metres wide Essentially the Mailüfterl consisted of 3000 transistors and 5000 diodes Everything else needed for his project had to be organised by the group and in particular by Zemanek Zemanek made great efforts to get hold of this transistor technology I managed to get all 3000 and the diodes too donated from Philips in Holland They were actually designed for hearing aids and that's not exactly something that helps to speed up computational tasks We tried to find people who had a certain enthusiasm and a certain appetite for risk as no one could really guarantee that the Mailüfterl project would amount to anything Recruitment was always done on a student basis so Zemanek then selected a handful of people You can imagine, when you have 3000 plus 5000 plus a few thousand more components everything needs to be assembled No one had a problem working long hours having to work at weekends too was a given There were no computer journals and very few books on computers So really one had to gather the information on one's own in order to know enough to build a computer So very quickly I went from being an electrical engineer to a programmer The Mailüfterl did work, it calculated all kinds of things but we needed to know whether it could function for hours at a time We could listen in to the rhythm of the program When we left programs running overnight we could hear the radio via the telephone system and hear if the correct rhythm was still there or if just a continuous tone was left and therefore something had gone wrong We kept watch over it like a patient in intensive care From today's perspective of course the machine was a monstrosity At that time the machine was the best we could make out of the components available Just the visibility alone of the Mailüfterl project helped to establish computing in Austria Zemanek was always a man of vision One vision was for us to get into the new computer technology and to have the chance to play an international role I'm an engineer to my core and that means "truth is what works" In the 1950's, a group of Austrian students led by Heinz Zemanek designed and built the Mailüfterl, one of the earliest fully transistorized computers On May 27th 1958 it ran its first calculation For a brief moment, this "Viennese spring breeze" put Austria at the vanguard of European computing
Life
Heinz Zemanek went to a secondary school in Vienna and earned his Matura in 1937. He then started to study at the University of Vienna. In 1940, Zemanek was drafted into the Wehrmacht, where he served in a "communication unit" and also as a teacher in an Intelligence Service School. Returning to studying radar technology he earned his Diplom in 1944 with the help of University of Stuttgart professor Richard Feldtkeller (1901–1981).
After the war Zemanek worked as an assistant at the university and earned his PhD in 1951 about timesharing methods in multiplex telegraphy. In 1952 he completed the URR1 (Universal Relais Rechner 1, i.e., Universal Relay Computer 1). He died at the age of 94 on 16 July 2014.[2][3]
The Vienna Lab
The IBM Laboratory Vienna, also known as the Vienna Lab, was founded in 1961 as a department of the IBM Laboratory in Böblingen, Germany, with Professor Zemanek as its first manager.[4] Zemanek remained with the Vienna Lab until 1976, when he was appointed an IBM Fellow.[5] He was crucial in the creation of the formal definition of the programming language PL/I.[6]
For several years, Zemanek had been a lecturer at the Vienna University of Technology, which features a lecture hall named in his honor. He was also a long-time member of the International Federation for Information Processing, of which he was president from 1971 to 1974.[7]
Scouting
Professor Zemanek joined the Boy Scouts in 1932 and served as Scout Leader, International Secretary of Austria from 1946 to 1949 and International Commissioner of the Pfadfinder Österreichs from 1949 to 1954.[citation needed]
Honours and awards
- Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class (2005)[8]
- Gold Decoration for Services to the City of Vienna
- Joseph Johann Ritter von Prechtl Medal from the Technical University of Vienna
- Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the European Society for the Education of Engineers
- Wilhelm Exner Medal (1972).[9]
- Rudolf Kompfner Medal of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the Technical University of Vienna (2010)
- Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts[10]
- Hero of Uzbekistan[citation needed]
- Eduard Rhein Ring of Honor (Eduard Rhein Foundation, 1998)[11][12]
- Heinz-Zemanek-Preis, an award for extraordinary accomplishments in the field of computer science, was named for him
- Kardinal-Innitzer-Preis (2003) – for his lifetime accomplishments
Literature
- Bekanntes & Unbekanntes aus der Kalenderwissenschaft. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1978
- Kalender und Chronologie. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1990
- Weltmacht Computer. Esslingen: Bechtle, 1991
- Das geistige Umfeld der Informationstechnik. Berlin: Springer, 1992
- Unser Kalender. Vienna: Wiener Kath. Akad., 1995
- Vom Mailüfterl zum Internet. Vienna: Picus-Verlag, 2001
- Anekdoten zur Informatik. Innsbruck: Studien-Verlag, 2001
Notes
- ^ Jones, Cliff B. (2015). "In memoriam: Professor Heinz Zemanek (1920–2014)". Formal Aspects of Computing. 27 (2): 237. doi:10.1007/s00165-015-0332-4.
- ^ "Austrian computing pioneer Heinz Zemanek dead at 94". 17 July 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
- ^ "Morto Heinz Zemanek, disegno' il primo computer nel 1955". Internazionale. 17 July 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
- ^ Bandat 1985, p.53
- ^ Zemanek 1985, p.8
- ^ "A Formal Definition of a PL/1 Subset" was produced as TR 25.139 on 20 December 1974. The five authors of the report were Hans Bekič, Dines Bjørner, Wolfgang Henhapl, Cliff B. Jones, and Peter Lucas. See LNCS 177, Jones, 1984. p.107–155.
- ^ "Heinz Zemanek – Biography". Austrian Computer Society. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
- ^ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (PDF) (in German). p. 1707. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
- ^ Editor, ÖGV. (2015). Wilhelm Exner Medal. Austrian Trade Association. ÖGV. Austria.
- ^ "Members". European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
- ^ "The Eduard Rhein Ring of Honor Recipients". Eduard Rhein Foundation. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Retrieved February 5, 2011.
- ^ "Ring of Honor 1998 – Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. mult. Heinz Zemanek". Eduard Rhein Foundation. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Retrieved February 5, 2011.
References
- Cliff B. Jones, ed. (1984). Programming Languages and Their Definition — H. Bekič (1936-1982). Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 177. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo: Springer-Verlag. doi:10.1007/BFb0048933. ISBN 978-3-540-13378-0. S2CID 7488558.
- Zemanek, Heinz (1985). "About the architecture of my life". In Neuhold, E.J.; Chroust, G. (eds.). Proceedings of the IFIP TC2 Working Conference on The Role of Abstract Models in Information Processing. Amsterdam, New York, Oxford: North-Holland. pp. 1–28. ISBN 978-0-444-87888-5.
- Bandat, K. (1985). "Heinz Zemanek and the IBM Laboratory Vienna". In Neuhold, E.J.; Chroust, G. (eds.). Proceedings of the IFIP TC2 Working Conference on The Role of Abstract Models in Information Processing. Amsterdam, New York, Oxford: North-Holland. pp. 53–59. ISBN 978-0-444-87888-5.
External links
- Heinz Zemanek in the German National Library catalogue
- Heinz Zemanek website
- Heinz Zemanek university home page
- Oral history interview with Heinz Zemanek, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Zemanek discusses his engineering education and work in radar technology during World War II. Zemanek then focuses on the development of computers in Austria: magnetic drums and magnetic memory, the Mailüfterl computer, LOGALGOL and other compilers, the University of Vienna, where Zemanek worked on his computer, the subsequent sponsorship of the project by International Business Machines Europe, and ALGOL and PL/I language standards development.
- Picture (.jpg)
- Life of Zemanek
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This page was last edited on 4 April 2024, at 17:00