(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 film "Colossus: The Forbin Project".
Forbin is the designer of an incredibly sophisticated 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, and after taking
safeguards to preserve confidential material, each side agrees
to allow it. As soon as the link is established 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.
[Date?]
(2002-07-28)
Nearby terms:
color « Color Graphics Adapter « color model « Colossus » colour » colour depth » colour look-up table
