Reliability and heat were the main problems. Valves were fragile devices that, due to the relatively primitive way they were manufactured, failed pretty quickly. In addition to that, they gave off vast amounts of heat. This meant they needed expensive air-conditioning systems to keep their temperature down.
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 first electronic computers were built before the invention of the transistor or integrated circuit chip. They used vacuum tubes for the processing and temporary memory. In Britain those tubes were called valves.
There are no valves in a modern computer. If by valves you mean vacuum tubes, the equivalent is a transistor. Modern CPUs have many transistors/gates on their dies. The SandyBridge i7, a near-top end general purpose computer COU can have 2.2 billon transistor elements on the CPU die. Of course there are many more transistors incorporated in the logic chips, controllers and video cards in a computer as well.
veins
Valves can be tough to find in hardware stores simply because one might not know where to look. If one is having trouble, it is recommended to ask a sales representative for help. Or, simply, look at the signs throughout the store describing what is on each aisle.
Probably rate of burnout and heat. But this was common to all vacuum tube computers, not just Colossus.
they were huge and you needed loads
Probably rate of burnout and heat. But this was common to all vacuum tube computers, not just Colossus.
The Colossus computer worked using one to two thousand thermionic valves.
Colossus was a very large computer that used valves - a far cry from a modern desktop computer. It was used to help break the German's Enigma Code.
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
Reliability and heat were the main problems. Valves were fragile devices that, due to the relatively primitive way they were manufactured, failed pretty quickly. In addition to that, they gave off vast amounts of heat. This meant they needed expensive air-conditioning systems to keep their temperature down.
Because - when Colossus was built (in 1943), microchips had yet to be invented ! Microchips replaced valves and transistors in newer computers.
A variety of methods were employed, from electromechanical telephone relays (Zuse KG Z3) to thermionic valves (ABC, Colossus, etc).
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.