Colossus

Early British cryptanalysis computer

Key facts

Developer: Tommy Flowers , assisted by Sidney Broadhurst, William Chandler and for the Mark 2 machines, Allen Coombs
Manufacturer: Post Office Research Station
Type: Special-purpose electronic digital programmable computer
Generation: First-generation computer
Released: Mk 1: December 1943 ( 1943-12 ) Mk 2: 1 June 1944 ( 1944-06-01 )
Media: Electric typewriter output Programmed using switches and plug panels
Cpu: Custom circuits using thermionic valves and thyratrons . A total of 1,600 in Mk 1 and 2,400 in Mk 2. Also relays and stepping switches
Memory: None (no RAM )
Display: Indicator lamp panel
Input: Paper tape of up to 20,000 × 5-bit characters in a continuous loop
Power: 8.5 kW

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Wikidata facts

Image: Colossus.jpg

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discontinuation date: 2000-00-00
Commons category: Colossus computer
inception: 1943-00-00
described at URL: www.virtualcolossus.co.uk/colossus3d
publication date: 1943-12-00
title: Colossus

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Article

Colossus was a set of computers developed by British codebreakers in the years 1943–1945 to help in the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. Colossus used thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) to perform Boolean and counting operations. Colossus is regarded as the world's first programmable, electronic, digital computer (the first electromechanical being Konrad Zuse's Z3 completed in Berlin in 1941).

Colossus was designed by General Post Office (GPO) research telephone engineer Tommy Flowers based on plans developed by mathematician Max Newman at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park.