Heinz Zemanek, Inventor of Europe's First All-Transistor PC, Dies at 94

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Austrian computing pioneer created "May Breeze" with 3,000 donated transistors

Every so often we learn about the passing of a pioneer in the field of computing, and this time it's Heinz Zemanek, creator of "May Breeze" (or Mailüfterl in German) the first computer in Europe to run solely on transistors instead of vacuum tubes. With the help of students at the Vienna University of Technology (TUV), the Austrian engineer and programmer built the PC from 3,000 transistors donated from Philips, along with 5,000 diodes, 1,000 assembly platelets, 100,000 solder joints, 15,000 resistors, 5,000 capacitors, and 20,000 meters of switching wire.
The transistors were slow and intended for hearing ***** Reuters reports. Nevertheless, they generated less heat and were much smaller than vacuum tubes, though May Breeze checked in at 4 meters wide by 2.5 meters high by 0.5 meters deep.
May Breeze performed its first calculation in 1958 and stayed at TUV for several years before IBM swooped in and bought the system. In 1961, IBM built its Vienna Lab for Zemanek, where he remained as manager until 1976. During his time there, he directed the development of formal programming language descriptors and played a big role in Programming Language One (PL/I).

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