Zuse Z22 Emulator

The Z22 Machine

The Z22 was a very early German computer based on vacuum tube technology. It was built by the company Zuse KG in 1958, which sold in total 55 machines to customers mainly in Germany. The machine was used for many applications in science, technology, and business.

The Emulator

I wrote a Z22 emulator in Javascript, so you can try this historical computer directly in your web browser here:

• Start the Zuse Z22 Emulator

Quick start to running a program

To run programs do the following:

1. Go to the "punched tape reader" tab.
2. Load one of the example programs by selecting it in the program drop down menu and press "Load". Or, type in your own program in the editor area.
3. Press "Insert Tape".
4. Go to the "control panel" tab.
5. Press "Befehlsübernahme".
6. Press "Start" to read the program from the paper tape into the computer.
7. Press "Start" again to execute the program.
8. Go to the "teleprinter" tab to view the output of the program.

Learn how to program the machine

Very cool sites to learn about the Z22 computer and how to program it are:

• R. Kirchner's great Z22 documents collection at the computer museum of the Department of Computer Science of the Technical University Kaiserslautern.
• Wolfgang Pavel's great Z22 pages with his cool simulator written in PHP.

Have fun!

Norbert