[Cryptography] RIP Tommy Flowers

John Levine johnl at iecc.com
Wed Oct 28 00:13:49 EDT 2015


>Perhaps you feel that a computer needs a program.  I don't really know
>the whether the Colossus' tape was what we'd consider a program.

The tape was just the input message and was used as a clock.  I think
the program was wired in the valves.

>Perhaps you meant to add "electronic".
>
>And why not one of Zuse's machines?  Or Atanasoff's?

Zuse's weren't electronic, Atanasoff's was a lot smaller and much
less programmable, but there's certainly been a lot of opinions
about which was how close to a real computer, for various definitions
of computer.

R's,
John


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