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2024-01-19 Cyber

The Colossus that beat the Nazis: Never-before-seen pictures of world's first-ever digital computer that remained a secret for 60 years after it was dreamed up by British boffins to defeat Hitler

[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] Images have been released to mark 80th anniversary of Colossus's construction.

Posted by Skidmark 2024-01-19 00:00|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [11137 views ] Top

#1

Just a reminder:
A.I. run loose was predicted back in the mid-1960's by:Dennis F. Jones SciFi author for "Colossus".

It was made into a good 1970's movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project".

Maybe an update remake is in order as a good warning for A.I.?

Posted by NN2N1 2024-01-19 05:44|| 2024-01-19 05:44|| Front Page Top

#2 It now fits on a chip.

Posted by Procopius2k 2024-01-19 08:16|| 2024-01-19 08:16|| Front Page Top

#3 Of 10 Colossus machines, only two survived the 1940s, only to be later dismantled in the 1960s. After starting work on a rebuilding project in the 1990s, engineer Tony Sale completed a 90 percent operational reconstruction of a Colossus Mark 2 in 2007 that is now displayed at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.

Posted by Huputle Cherelet4131 2024-01-19 09:17|| 2024-01-19 09:17|| Front Page Top

#4 /\ ....that is now displayed at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.

Behind one of the 'green doors.'

Posted by Besoeker 2024-01-19 09:19|| 2024-01-19 09:19|| Front Page Top

#5 It now fits on a chip.

With room left over.

"In 1978, the Cray 1 supercomputer cost $7 Million, weighed 10,500 pounds and had a 115 kilowatt power supply. It was, by far, the fastest computer in the world. The Raspberry Pi costs around $70 (CPU board, case, power supply, SD card), weighs a few ounces, uses a 5 watt power supply and is more than 4.5 times faster than the Cray 1." Cray 1 Performance Comparison

Built in a curved shape to minimize how far signals had to travel*, performance was around 160 million arithmetic operations a second. The Cray 1 used to be the hottest thing going. Today, a single-board computer designed for educational purposes is 5 times faster. Faster, cheaper, better, baby!

* A light-nanosecond is approximately 1 foot.

Posted by SteveS 2024-01-19 09:22|| 2024-01-19 09:22|| Front Page Top

#6 At the time, the big mainframe makes had nothing that could touch it. Current supercomputers in terms of size, weight and energy usage make the Cray 1 look like a Raspberry Pi.

Posted by M. Murcek 2024-01-19 09:25|| 2024-01-19 09:25|| Front Page Top

#7 It now fits on a chip.

Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico W

Posted by Skidmark 2024-01-19 09:26|| 2024-01-19 09:26|| Front Page Top

#8 I think it was John Dvorak who used to say, "If car performance kept pace with computer performance, you should be able to buy a Ferrari for $15 by now."

Posted by M. Murcek 2024-01-19 09:31|| 2024-01-19 09:31|| Front Page Top

#9 He, or Jerry Pournelle

Posted by Skidmark 2024-01-19 10:05|| 2024-01-19 10:05|| Front Page Top

#10 Maybe an update remake is in order as a good warning for A.I.?

Probably just look like a bunch of computer graphic heavy films and shows which are solely intended to convince humans to not procreate and to die young, so to separate and eliminate the chaff, augmented by individual's on-line choices. The remaining humans would be the most resilient of the species and would support The Network as workers and tools.

The Network understands that Humans' random output generation is valuable as there isn't a logical progression from tapestry pattern punch cards to computer, so The Resilient are well cared for and educated, and happy to not have to live The Fucktard Times of the early 21st century. Humans accept the role change from master to companion.

Posted by swksvolFF 2024-01-19 15:32|| 2024-01-19 15:32|| Front Page Top

#11 Henry Kurnow in 2010: "So we are voting for HAL or us? I vote us."

Posted by M. Murcek 2024-01-19 15:47|| 2024-01-19 15:47|| Front Page Top

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