First electronic computer now 70 years old

[czdt8m]

Colossus, the first electronic computer build by Tommy Flowers in WWII is now 70 years old. 

Read more at http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/veterans-celebrate-colossus-70

Still an amazing achievement.

[Fraser]

I am fortunate enough to live only a few miles from Bletchley Park so can visit the rebuilt Colossus  easily. I have been to Bletchley Park (Station X) many times, (once to get married ) and can recommend it as an interesting museum, and collection of cryptographic and computing history. They even had a Diplomatic Wireless Service display but I heard recently that it may have been moth-balled to facilitate repairs to the building in which it sits.

If you are ever in the vacinity of Milton Keynes, do a small detour to Bletchley Park. It is well worth a visit.

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/

[Andy Watson]

I can also recommend Bletchley Park ... as it was a while ago. However, I have heard, and their website seems to confirm that 'they' have separated the computing museum from the park and the two are to be run as independent attractions - which appears to be totally crazy to me. I couldn't work-out whether the Colossus  would be part of the park or the computing section. Ditto all the other interesting cryptography stuff.

A bit more info here:
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25916048

[Fraser]

I know a chap who works in the computing museum area and he has indicated that there has been much change recently. I shall be contacting them regarding the apparent disappearance of some attractions. The web site is a lot more 'Disneyland' and flashy than I remember...a new marketing team ?

[Bored@Work]

Seems not all is well

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/03/bletchley_park_spat_halts_work_on_lorenz_sz42/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/28/bletchley_park_sacks_elderly_volunteers/

[Fraser]

@ B@W,

Thanks for the links.

If half what is written is true, I am very sad about it.

EDIT: waffle removed

[czdt8m]

Describing it as a "computer" in the contemporary sense of what we understand a computer to be is a rich topic for debate. It is a significant pre-cursor to the stored-program computer which has a memory to store a set of machine language operations in the form of a program. I would argue it is not a computer in that sense. But things learned in its construction were valuable in the next step.

It is a stored program computer, the program being stored on tape. Many computing devices cannot execute instructions from RAM, if that is what you are thinking, and in fact in the early days most machines were like that. They often had separate data and instruction memories.

I do not believe it is a stored program computer. The "program" is hardwired using jumpers and switches.. The only thing on tape is the encrypted message in an endless loop.

[G7PSK]

Does it matter if the switches thrown for the programming are mechanical or electronic. It is still running on a stored program, either hard or soft.

[alanb]

As far as I am aware the worlds first stored program computer was the Manchester University Baby which ran its first program in June 1948. Colossus was electronic but not stored program.

Colossus, the first electronic computer build by Tommy Flowers in WWII is now 70 years old. 

Read more at http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/veterans-celebrate-colossus-70

Still an amazing achievement.

I read a very interesting book about it. http://www.colossus-computer.com/
I recommend it since it does provide some interesting chapters on how the Enigma codes were processed. It doesn't really discuss the actual electronics of the Colossus in great detail.

Colossus was designed and built for the Lorenz code and was not used on Enigma.

It is sad that Tommy Flowers never received the recognition he deserved during his life time.