Elektronische Datenverarbeitung, EDV#

Electronic Data Processing, EDP; Early developments of EDP in Austria were closely connected with the Census: Austria and the USA were the first countries to employ the Hollerith system for census-taking in 1890. H. Hollerith assisted O. Schaeffler, a pioneer in the field of telegraphy and telephony, in building 12 counting machines in Vienna and supervising the evaluation of census data. Schaeffler developed a programming machine with cables and plugs for which he obtained the first world patent for a programming device in 1896.

G. Tauschek made important contributions to punch-card accounting, counting and calculating machines, for which he obtained many patents, 169 of which he sold to IBM. He combined written and punched data and saw accounting as a system that was to be optimised as an integral whole, and also paved the way for the development of magnetic tape storage.

H. Zemanek built the first Austrian mainframe computer (called "Mailuefterl"), which was based on the use of transistors with a highly flexible instruction code. After 1960, most research and development was carried out on software (compiler designs for non-numeric tasks were also developed by the "Mailuefterl" team). The IBM 7772 voice-response unit was developed in the Vienna branch of IBM laboratories. Other achievements include developments in connection with the syntax and semantics of the IBM-programming language ("Vienna Definition Language" (VDL) and the "Vienna Development Method" (VDM)).

Literature#