Colossus computer

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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 computer was 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. Alan Turing's use of probability in cryptanalysis (see Banburismus) contributed to its design. It is sometimes erroneously said that Colossus was designed by Turing, not Flowers, to aid the cryptanalysis of the Enigma but an earlier machine that Turing designed was the electromechanical Bombe. The prototype, Colossus Mark 1, was working by December 1943 and was in use at Bletchley Park...

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