László Kozma

Bust of László Kozma

László Kozma (born November 28, 1902 in Miskolc , † November 9, 1983 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian computer pioneer.

Life

Kozma was initially unable to study electrical engineering in Budapest due to a numerus clausus and worked as an electrician. From 1925 he studied at Masaryk University , graduating in 1930. He worked for ATT in Antwerp on telephone circuits and in 1942 returned to Hungary. In 1944 he was sent to Mauthausen concentration camp . Back in Hungary in 1945 he worked as an engineer for an electrical company, but was arrested by the communist government in 1949, sentenced to 15 years and only released and rehabilitated in 1954. 1955 to 1972 he was a professor at the Technical University in Budapest.

His interest in computers arose from his preoccupation with the automation of telephone connections. 1955 to 1957 he developed the first digital computer in Hungary, the CEST-1. The CEST-1 was a relay computer that Kozma designed while in captivity. It was used at the university to teach relay switching technology and was finished in 1958. It had 2000 relays and was based on the decimal system. Kozma also constructed the input and output units (a teletype as output and punched film strips as input). At the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (under Sandor Varga and Rezsö Tarján) Hungary's first tube computer was built from 1957, based on the Soviet M-3 (by Isaak Semjonowitsch Bruk ), but with slight modifications (as in Armenia, China and Estonia). It was finished in 1959.

In 1996 he received the Computer Pioneer Award . From 1961 he was a corresponding and from 1976 full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Web links

1996 Computer Pioneer Award (English)
Kozma László. Magyar Életrajzi Lexicon, accessed March 29, 2013 (Hungarian).

Individual evidence

^ Kovacs: M-3, the first Hungarian computer
↑ The director Varga, brother of Eugen Varga , came from the Soviet Union, his deputy and the scientific director Tarjan had just released from prison in 1955 and was working on the project of an electronic computer similar to EDVAC, called B-1 (Budapest 1) . When the M-3 was chosen as the basis, Tarjan was replaced by Balint Domolki.
↑ Gyözö Kovacs 50 years ago we constructed the first hungarian tube computer, the M-3: short stories from the histories of the first hungarian computer (1957-1960) , in Arthur Tatnall (ed.) History of computing - learning from the past , IFIP WG 9.7, Int. Conf. HC 2010, Springer Verlag 2010. Memories from Kovacs, who was the designer. He was a student of Kozma.

personal data
SURNAME	Kozma, László
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Hungarian computer pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH	November 28, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH	Miskolc
DATE OF DEATH	November 9, 1983
Place of death	Budapest

[1] Kovacs: M-3, the first Hungarian computer

[2] The director Varga, brother of Eugen Varga , came from the Soviet Union, his deputy and the scientific director Tarjan had just released from prison in 1955 and was working on the project of an electronic computer similar to EDVAC, called B-1 (Budapest 1) . When the M-3 was chosen as the basis, Tarjan was replaced by Balint Domolki.

[3] Gyözö Kovacs 50 years ago we constructed the first hungarian tube computer, the M-3: short stories from the histories of the first hungarian computer (1957-1960) , in Arthur Tatnall (ed.) History of computing - learning from the past , IFIP WG 9.7, Int. Conf. HC 2010, Springer Verlag 2010. Memories from Kovacs, who was the designer. He was a student of Kozma.