colossus computer
The Colossus was a giant computer built by the British Secret Service during Word War II. An engineer called Tommy Flowers built it, and used vacuum tubes to perform the calculations. Colossus computers were used by the British to break the German codes. They were the world's first programmable digital, electronic, computing devices
The prototype, Colossus Mark 1, was shown to be working in December 1943 and was operational at Bletchley Park by February 1944. An improvedColossus Mark 2 first worked on 1 June 1944, just in time for the Normandy landings
In spite of the destruction of the Colossus hardware and blueprints as part of the effort to maintain a project secrecy that was kept up into the 1970s-a secrecy that deprived some of the Colossus creators of credit for their pioneering advancements in electronic digital computing during their lifetimes-a functional replica of a Colossus computer was completed in 2007 . Ten Colossi were in use by the end of the war.
In spite of the destruction of the Colossus hardware and blueprints as part of the effort to maintain a project secrecy that was kept up into the 1970s-a secrecy that deprived some of the Colossus creators of credit for their pioneering advancements in electronic digital computing during their lifetimes-a functional replica of a Colossus computer was completed in 2007 . Ten Colossi were in use by the end of the war.