Heinz Zemanek Passes At 94 52
Knuckles writes Austrian computer pioneer Heinz Zemanek, the first person to build a fully transistorized computer on the European mainland, died in Vienna, aged 94 (link in German). Officially named Binär dezimaler Volltransistor-Rechenautomat (binary-decimal fully transistorized computing automaton), but known as "Mailüfterl", the computer was built in 1955 and in 1958 calculated 5073548261 to be a prime number in 66 minutes. Its power was comparable to a small tube computer of the time, and it measured 4 by 2.5 by 0.5 meters. "Mailüfterl" means "may breeze" in Viennese German and was a play on US computers of the time, like MIT's Whirlwind. 'Even if it cannot match the rapid calculation speed of American models called "Whirlwind" or "Typhoon", it will be enough for a "Wiener Mailüfterl"' (Viennese may breeze), said Zemanek. Mailüfterl contained 3,000 transistors, 5,000 diodes, 1,000 assembly platelets, 100,000 solder joints, 15,000 resistors, 5,000 capacitors and 20,000 meters switching wire. It was built as an underground project at and without financial support from the technical university of Vienna, were Zemanek was an assistant professor at the time. In 1961, Zemanek and his team moved to IBM, who built them their own lab in Vienna. In 1976, Zemanek became an IBM Fellow and stayed at IBM until his retirement in 1985. He was crucial in the creation of the formal definition of the programming language PL/I. The definition language used was VDL (Vienna Definition Language), a direct predecessor of VDM Specification Language (VDM-SL). He remained a professor in Vienna and held regular lectures until 2006.
Re:Heinz der man! (Score:4, Funny)
Veuillez poster en anglais, s'il vous plait.
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Not sure if if whoosh or troll.
It's "May breeze," not "may breeze" (Score:4, Informative)
"Mailüfterl" means "may breeze"
No it doesn't - it means "May breeze," as in the month, not as in the possibility.
Viennese may breeze
Are people from Vienna particular aloof?
A German wouldn't have made this mistake!
Re:It's "May breeze," not "may breeze" (Score:4, Interesting)
A French would possibly have got it right but still written in that wrong and confusing way. We don't capitalize month names. Now I know why it's done in English.
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Proper capitalization is important. Else people might look funny at you if you say "I had to help my uncle Jack off his horse".
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...and lived.
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Not a German but maybe an Austrian ;) Sorry for the typo, you may have noticed that I tried to take quite some care with TFA, it slipped through.
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Depends on how you define computer!
Just look up Charles Babbage or Konrad Zuse.
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Konrad Zuse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K... [wikipedia.org]
"Passed" (Score:2)
Passed what? A kidney stone? Another car?
Oh, you mean "died". I get it now.
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Passed what? A kidney stone? Another car?
I think the clue is in the name: Mailüfterl: May breeze.
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"he passed someone on the interstate at 94 mph."
Thats called tthe autobahn over there, and at 150km/hr everyone else passes YOU
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After gettin the flack for the may/May typo already, the headline was edited by the editor and was not my fault. Mine had sucked as well though
Farewell (Score:1)
Best Computer name ever (Score:3, Insightful)
I've never heard of this guy, but calling your Computer "Mailüfterl" in contrast to other ones named "Wirlwind" definitely gives him instant credit with me. Must have been a fun guy to be lectured by. ... Seriously, this may actually be the very first non-gigantomaniac humourous computer name in history.
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Actually his lectures at the Vienna Univiersity of technology are legendary.
Mailüfterl versus Whirlwind is a very austrian thing.
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Now I envy your nick. And yeah, so Austrian it makes me a little homesick.
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Father of Computer Puns? (Score:2)
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Maybe that's his greatest contribution. Possibly he's what inspired the Unix name to be a play on Multics, C to be a play on BPL, and the literally uncountable other successor puns (in the *nix-verse alone!)?
And that's why Unix isn't considered to be a serious OS, the way Windows is.
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Interesting, thanks. I would guess that it's a nerd thing and probably there were earlier cases, but now I am intrigued.
Someone tell him to slow down! (Score:4, Funny)
Heinz Zemanek Passes At 94
Do they Autobahns in Austria, then? Cos over here that kind of thing will get you a ticket.
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Bah. Do they have Autobahns, etc.
Re:Someone tell him to slow down! (Score:4, Informative)
Austria is metric, so it's only 60mph.
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At 94 km/h you are considered a traffic obstacle on an austrian Autobahn. ;-)
At 94mp/h you are considered a rowdy and a madman
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Certainly not in Austria. It ain't as crazy as in Germany, but the Austrian drivers are not that much less speedy, despite suffering from a speed limit of just 130km/h on highways.
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Yes they do, but the headline was rewritten by the /. editor, it was not mine. I do think he improved on mine though.
RIP (Score:2)
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Typical German speaker (Score:2)
Why use three syllables when 35 will do.
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WTF are you rambling about?
Mai-lüf-terl. Exactly three syllables...
Maybe he referred to the official "Binär dezimaler Volltransistor-Rechenautomat" which does sound as if Hitler had moved to a career in CS