The Colossus was built using thermionic valves, thyratrons, relays and stepping switches.The Colossus Mark 1 used about 1600 valves and the Colossus Mark 2 used about 2400 valves. After the Colossus Mark 2 was in production and use the single Colossus Mark 1 was briefly shutdown and upgraded to a Colossus Mark 2. Five of the ten Colossus machines also had a device called the "gadget" that aided in a process called "rectangling", the number of additional valves added to each of these enhanced Colossus Mark 2 machines is unknown.
The Colossus was built using thermionic valves, thyratrons, relays and stepping switches.The Colossus Mark 1 used about 1600 valves and the Colossus Mark 2 used about 2400 valves. After the Colossus Mark 2 was in production and use the single Colossus Mark 1 was briefly shutdown and upgraded to a Colossus Mark 2. Five of the ten Colossus machines also had a device called the "gadget" that aided in a process called "rectangling", the number of additional valves added to each of these enhanced Colossus Mark 2 machines is unknown.
using valves
using valves
Because - when Colossus was built (in 1943), microchips had yet to be invented ! Microchips replaced valves and transistors in newer computers.
The Colossus computer worked using one to two thousand thermionic valves.
they were huge and you needed loads
Colossus worked by holes punched in a paper tape. It was programmed by switches and plugs. Colossus used thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) to perform Boolean and counting operations.
Probably rate of burnout and heat. But this was common to all vacuum tube computers, not just Colossus.
Probably rate of burnout and heat. But this was common to all vacuum tube computers, not just Colossus.
The Fall of Colossus has 186 pages.
The Colossus Crisis has 304 pages.