Zuse S2
More info
- Creator
- Konrad Zuse
- Released
- 1942
- Type
- Process computer (relays)
Arguably the first process-control computer — a relay machine that read sensors on an aircraft wing and recomputed the values on the spot.
After Zuse Z3, Konrad Zuse built two special-purpose machines for the German aircraft industry. S1 (1942) computed corrections for the radio-guided Henschel Hs 293 glide bombs. S2 added an analog-to-digital converter that read pressure sensors on a wing profile directly. A computer that took measurements from the real world, calculated, and produced a result makes it an early candidate for the title of process-control computer.
Both machines rested on the Z3's relay technology and binary floating-point. S2 was destroyed during the war and survives today mostly through Zuse's own notes.