World's first programmable digital computer brought back to life.

[Eeyore]

At the end of WW2, it was considered so secret that Churchill ordered its
destruction ....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...ogy.html?in_article_id=494225&in_page_id=1965

It's remarkable how it's been brought back.

"More than 60 years have passed since it last saw action in the titanic struggle
against the Nazis.

But yesterday, Colossus - the code-breaking computer that helped turn the course
of the Second World War - was back in business."

Without Colossus there would have been no 'ULTRA' intelligence. So vital was it
that the intelligence acquired had sometimes have to be seen to be 'ignored'
lest it gave away the fact that we had access to Nazi communications.

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

At the end of WW2, it was considered so secret that Churchill ordered its
destruction ....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...ogy.html?in_article_id=494225&in_page_id=1965

It's remarkable how it's been brought back.

"More than 60 years have passed since it last saw action in the titanic struggle
against the Nazis.

But yesterday, Colossus - the code-breaking computer that helped turn the course
of the Second World War - was back in business."

Without Colossus there would have been no 'ULTRA' intelligence. So vital was it
that the intelligence acquired had sometimes have to be seen to be 'ignored'
lest it gave away the fact that we had access to Nazi communications.

More here ...
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/docview.rhtm/474682

Graham

 

[BobW]

More here ...
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/docview.rhtm/474682

Graham

Very interesting. We owe a lot to those WWII codebreakers (both on the
European and Japanese sides of the war).

I don't quite understand how the competition will be fair. The Colossus is
already programmed to decipher the Lorenz wheel settings, right? I can't
imagine that anything could beat that, but I guess we'll soon find out.

Thanks for the post.

Bob

 

[[email protected]]

Very interesting. We owe a lot to those WWII codebreakers (both on the
European and Japanese sides of the war).

I don't quite understand how the competition will be fair. The Colossus is
already programmed to decipher the Lorenz wheel settings, right? I can't
imagine that anything could beat that, but I guess we'll soon find out.

Modern hardware is a couple of orders of magnitude faster and more
reliable. In the late 1960's I worked with a PDP-8 where the data was
output via a paper tape punch, which was tedious. I had to put the
paper tape through a tape to card converter to get it into the
university's serious computer (an IBM 7040/44).

The PDP-8 was built with discrete transistors and the simplest
instruction took more than a microsecond to execute. The valve-based
Colossus wasn't anything like as fast - 25,000 characters per second.
ie 40usec per character,

http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/research/pubs/books/papers/133.pdf

 

[ehsjr]

At the end of WW2, it was considered so secret that Churchill ordered its
destruction ....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...ogy.html?in_article_id=494225&in_page_id=1965

It's remarkable how it's been brought back.

"More than 60 years have passed since it last saw action in the titanic struggle
against the Nazis.

But yesterday, Colossus - the code-breaking computer that helped turn the course
of the Second World War - was back in business."

Without Colossus there would have been no 'ULTRA' intelligence. So vital was it
that the intelligence acquired had sometimes have to be seen to be 'ignored'
lest it gave away the fact that we had access to Nazi communications.

Graham

Nice! Thanks

Ed

 

[Jamie]

At the end of WW2, it was considered so secret that Churchill ordered its
destruction ....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...ogy.html?in_article_id=494225&in_page_id=1965

It's remarkable how it's been brought back.

"More than 60 years have passed since it last saw action in the titanic struggle
against the Nazis.

But yesterday, Colossus - the code-breaking computer that helped turn the course
of the Second World War - was back in business."

Without Colossus there would have been no 'ULTRA' intelligence. So vital was it
that the intelligence acquired had sometimes have to be seen to be 'ignored'
lest it gave away the fact that we had access to Nazi communications.

Graham

Hmm, well this is the way I understand it.

One day in Germany they were digging deep and found remains of
communication wire 100 feet down and concluded that they had telephone
type commutations before any one.
Then came along you guys (the British) not accepting this fact,
started to dig and got to 200 feet, and found remains of communication
wire and then took claim to being the first one to have telephone type
communications.
Over here (USA), an Idaho farmer heard about this and started digging
and digging until he gave up at 300 feet and found nothing..

His conclusion was that we had wireless communication before any one
else.

Hale the USA!..

 

[AnimalMagic]

At the end of WW2, it was considered so secret that Churchill ordered its
destruction ....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...ogy.html?in_article_id=494225&in_page_id=1965

It's remarkable how it's been brought back.

"More than 60 years have passed since it last saw action in the titanic struggle
against the Nazis.

But yesterday, Colossus - the code-breaking computer that helped turn the course
of the Second World War - was back in business."

Without Colossus there would have been no 'ULTRA' intelligence. So vital was it
that the intelligence acquired had sometimes have to be seen to be 'ignored'
lest it gave away the fact that we had access to Nazi communications.

Graham

First intelligent thing you have posted in years.

 

[ChairmanOfTheBored]

Hale the USA!..

Try using the right word.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Try using the right word.

_hale_ adjective: retaining exceptional health and vigor

Of course it's possible he meant to write "hail" ("heil" in German)
"used to express acclamation"



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Frank Buss]

At the end of WW2, it was considered so secret that Churchill ordered its
destruction ....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...ogy.html?in_article_id=494225&in_page_id=1965

The article says, that the Colossus machine starts working in 1944 and was
the world's first programmable digital computer. This is wrong. The first
computer was the Z1 and was built in 1936:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z1_(computer)

Even if you think the Z1 is just a better calculator, the Z3 was built in
1941 and Turing complete, unlike Colossus:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3

 

[Eeyore]

Try using the right word.

Jamie's English skills are as retarded as his other <ahem> skills.

Graham

 

[John Fields]

Jamie's English skills are as retarded as his other <ahem> skills.

 

[Jamie]

Try using the right word.

ok/

 

[Jamie]

I openly admit a miss spelling. The results of not proof reading
after a quick spell check run.

Also, given that i'm from Maine (USA) as every one knows what they
say about Maine people "We're all Related", may lead to facts of my
insidious and maybe a little demented, posts/replies towards some people
much like Mr. Graham or was that Ham?

How ever, There is one thing that has been puzzling me? Some time ago
I looked up "Eeyore" assuming that it had some meaning. What I found
was this..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eeyore

Which leads me to wonder if Mr. Graham sleeps with these at night.

Curiosity of a man from Maine where every one is related.

Oh btw John, How are you?

 

[ChairmanOfTheBored]

_hale_ adjective: retaining exceptional health and vigor

Of course it's possible he meant to write "hail" ("heil" in German)
"used to express acclamation"

It should be obvious to you which he meant, and it was not your first
mention.

 

[ChairmanOfTheBored]

Jamie's English skills are as retarded as his other <ahem> skills.

Graham

Damn. One decent post, and within a few hours, you revert back to
being an utter retard.

 

[ChairmanOfTheBored]

I openly admit a miss spelling. The results of not proof reading
after a quick spell check run.

Ahhh... the old "the spell checker did it." excuse.

Trust me... I do believe you.

 

[Eeyore]

Haha.

You're one to talk.

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

I openly admit a miss spelling.

And ANOTHER !

I suppose you will say it was deliberate ?

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

The article says, that the Colossus machine starts working in 1944 and was
the world's first programmable digital computer. This is wrong. The first
computer was the Z1 and was built in 1936:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z1_(computer)

Not electronic. Did the article not mention that ?

Even if you think the Z1 is just a better calculator, the Z3 was built in
1941 and Turing complete, unlike Colossus:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3

Electro-mechanical not electronic.

Graham