Mailüfterl is anickname for the AustrianBinär dezimaler Volltransistor-Rechenautomat (binary-decimal fully transistorized computing automaton), an early transistorizedcomputer. Other early transistorized computers includedTRADIC,Harwell CADET andTX-0.
Mailüfterl was built from May 1956 to May 1958 at theVienna University of Technology byHeinz Zemanek.
Heinz Zemanek had come to an agreement withKonrad Zuse, whose company Zuse KG would finance the work of Rudolf Bodo, who helped build the Mailüfterl, also that all circuit diagrams of theZ22 were supplied to Bodo and Zemanek, and that after the Mailüfterl project Bodo should work for the Zuse KG to help build the transistorizedZ23.[1]
The first program, computation of the prime 5,073,548,261, was executed in May 1958. Completion of the software continued until 1961. The nickname was coined by Zemanek: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).
The computer has 3,000transistors, 5,000diodes,[2] 1,000 assembly platelets, 100,000 solder joints, 15,000resistors, 5,000capacitors and about 20,000 metres (66,000 ft) of wire. It is 4 meters (13') wide, 2.5 meters (8') high, and 50 centimeters (20") deep. The machine was comparable in calculating power to what were then considered smallvacuum-tube computers. Calculations and representation of values worked using theBCD system.
Zemanek later said about his project that it was a "semi-illegal" undertaking of an assistant professor, which he and a group of students realized without official authorization, and hence without financial support, from the university. In 1954 he traveled toPhilips in the Netherlands, where he asked for a donationin kind. Transistors, invented seven years before and just beginning to be available commercially, were very difficult to obtain in quantity at any price, but Zemanek received a commitment for 1,000 ratherslow hearing-aid transistors,[3] and Philips finally shipped a total of 4,000 high-quality transistors to the Austrians.
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