Colossus, the world's first electronic computer, is commemorating its 80th anniversary and reveals many confidential photos

News from this site on January 24. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the birth of the world’s first electronic computer, Colossus (also known as the Giant Machine, Colossus Computer). The British Government Communications Headquarters GCHQ recently released some original confidential photos to the public.

##▲ Picture source GCHQ, the same below

Colossus was built during World War II and

was designed to decipher the intelligence exchanges between high-level Nazi German officers. "Tunny" password . The Colossus computer officially entered service on January 18, 1944, and played an important role in Allied military operations such as the Normandy invasion.

Note from this site: Before Colossus, Turing and other multinational experts collaborated to create the famous "bomb machine" used to crack the German "Enigma" code.

However, the "bomb machine" is an electromechanical, non-programmable special machine; although Colossus is still a special machine,

it adopts an electronic structure and supports programming, so it is considered "the world's most powerful machine". The first electronic computer".

Colossus computers were shrouded in mystery in the decades after World War II#Due to the specialized nature of its business, Colossus computers were shrouded in mystery for decades after World War II. ##: After the end of World War II, 8 of the 10 Colossus ever built were dismantled; in the 1960s, most of the relevant documents were destroyed; it was not until 1974 that relevant books began to be published; finally, by the beginning of the 21st century, The Colossus project has finally been officially declassified. Fortunately, based on the preserved engineer's notes, the

Mark II Colossus computer was successfully rebuilt in 2008

, and modern people can get a glimpse of the true appearance of this "hero of World War II".

▲Rebuilt Colossus Mark II computer

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