(A huge and ancient statue on the Greek island of Rhodes).
1. <
computer> The
Colossus and
Colossus Mark II computers used
by
Alan Turing at
Bletchley Park, UK during the Second
World War to crack the "Tunny" cipher produced by the Lorenz
SZ 40 and SZ 42 machines.
Colossus was a semi-fixed-program
vacuum tube calculator (unlike its near-contemporary, the
freely programmable
Z3).
[
"Breaking the enemy's code", Glenn Zorpette, IEEE Spectrum,
September 1987, pp. 47-51.]
2. The computer in the 1970 film, "
Colossus: The Forbin
Project". Forbin is the designer of a computer that will run
all of America's nuclear defences. Shortly after being turned
on, it detects the existence of Goliath, the Soviet
counterpart, previously unknown to US Planners. Both
computers insist that they be linked, whereupon the two become
a new super computer and threaten the world with the immediate
launch of nuclear weapons if they are detached.
Colossus
begins to give its plans for the management of the world under
its guidance. Forbin and the other scientists form a
technological resistance to
Colossus which must operate
underground.
{
The Internet Movie Database
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064177)}.
(2007-01-04)