Colossus computer
Colossus
- Date
- 1943–1944 · confidence high
- Place
- Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, England (built at Dollis Hill, London)
- Credited to
- Tommy Flowers (Post Office Research Station); Max Newman and Bill Tutte (analysis of the Lorenz cipher); operational 5-2-1944
- People
- 👤 Max Newman1897–1984👤 Tommy Flowers1905–1998👤 W. T. Tutte1917–2002
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
First programmable electronic digital computer (1,500-2,400 valves), designed to break the German high command's Lorenz cipher machine. Its existence was secret until the 1970s.
Programmable via switches and plugs, it did not store the program.
What it led to
- Electronic signals intelligence and GCHQ
- Demonstration of the reliability of thousands of valves
- Post-war British computers (Manchester Baby, 1948)
Built on
Made possible
- Bombe (Enigma codebreaking machine)1938–1940
- ENIAC1945
- Manchester Baby (SSEM), first stored-program computer1948
- Electronic computing
- Electronic cryptanalysis