Difference between revisions of "Colossus Computer"
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== Mind of the Colossus == | == Mind of the Colossus == | ||
| − | === | + | === Max Newman === |
| − | + | Max Newman was in charge of the Tunny-breaking team at Bletchley Park. This group would come to be named after him, the 'Newmanry.' The 'Newmanry's' function was "to work on machine attacks on Tunny, and it complemented the Testery, where hand and linguistic attacks were used" (Good 160). He was the main managerial force behind the creation and overseeing of Colossus (and the Heath Robinson before that). He deserved credit in the creation of Colossus mainly in this administrative capacity, as well as deciding to bring in the brilliant Tommy Flowers who, it will be discussed, was the main creative force behind building Colossus (Good 163). | |
| − | + | COPELAND #5 | |
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=== Jack Good === | === Jack Good === | ||
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Jack Good was a statistician summed to Newman's team to help build an electronic machine to aid in the decoding process. He had previously worked on the Enigma code-breaking and the construction of the Bombe, as well as the Colossus's immediate predecessor, the Heath Robinson machine. | Jack Good was a statistician summed to Newman's team to help build an electronic machine to aid in the decoding process. He had previously worked on the Enigma code-breaking and the construction of the Bombe, as well as the Colossus's immediate predecessor, the Heath Robinson machine. | ||
| − | According to Good, "one of the greatest secret inventions of the war was the discovery that ordinary teletype tape could be run at thirty miles per hour without tearing" (Budiansky 314). In many way, Good helped pave the way for mechanized aid in code-breaking. It wasn't until he received help from | + | PICTURE: COPELAND #8 |
| + | |||
| + | According to Good, "one of the greatest secret inventions of the war was the discovery that ordinary teletype tape could be run at thirty miles per hour without tearing" (Budiansky 314). In many way, Good helped pave the way for mechanized aid in code-breaking. It wasn't until he received help from TommyFlowers that the Colossus would take form. | ||
=== Bill Tutte === | === Bill Tutte === | ||
| − | === | + | Bill Tutte is the man who broke the Tunny code before any machines were even involved. Using two streams of intercepted text, Tutte was able to figure out the entire structure and functionality of the Tunny machine (Lorenz Cipher) without ever having seen it. Granted this took months, and individual decipherings could possibly take weeks, making the translated text unhelpful. That is why the creation of the Colossus was taken up (Good 161). |
| + | |||
| + | COPELAND #4 | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Tommy Flowers === | ||
| + | |||
| + | Tommy Flowers was a British Post Office electronics engineer working at the Research Station at Dollis Hill. He was recruited as an automaton specialist by the Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS). Along with Jack Good, he worked on theories derived by noted mathematicians Alan Turing and J von Neumann that led to the production of the Colossus (Ratcliff 205). | ||
| + | |||
| + | PICTURE 41 FROM COPELAND | ||
| + | |||
| + | The biggest contribution to the Colossus construction from Tommy Flowers was the suggestion that the wheel patterns in the machine be generated electronically. In this way, there was no need for dual paper tape, and the issue that plagued the Heath Robinson machine, synchronization, was eliminated (Sale, 354). "Alan Turing contributed to the thinking in developing these machines, as did Max newman and several others, but an enormous part of the credit for designing Colossus, and all the credit for building it, goes to Tommy Flowers" (Copeland 192). | ||
== Body of the Colossus == | == Body of the Colossus == | ||
Revision as of 13:03, 9 November 2010
The Colossus is arguably the first digital computer in human history. Created during World War II in order to help decipher encrypted German messages sent by the Lorenz Cipher, it stands as both an influential, technological advancement as well as a singular creation unto itself. Although its creation spawned a technological revolution in terms of electronic computation, its existence remained secret for over 30 years. Unlike the majority of technological media, the Colossus Computer was built with a singular purpose in mind, achieved its goal, and was immediately destroyed. It was never re-appropriated for a new use, except perhaps as an historical object, as it has recently been 'restored' as part of a museum for World War II code breaking at Bletchley Park.
In this way, as a technological medium, the Colossus is both hugely influential and entirely unique. Its role as a translator of another medium, that of German code, is a position not seen easily today. Perhaps this is why the Colossus can be easily forgotten, but deserves acknowledgement and remembrance.
Contents
Life of the Colossus
Cryptography Before Colossus
A New Cipher, A New Problem
Mind of the Colossus
Max Newman
Max Newman was in charge of the Tunny-breaking team at Bletchley Park. This group would come to be named after him, the 'Newmanry.' The 'Newmanry's' function was "to work on machine attacks on Tunny, and it complemented the Testery, where hand and linguistic attacks were used" (Good 160). He was the main managerial force behind the creation and overseeing of Colossus (and the Heath Robinson before that). He deserved credit in the creation of Colossus mainly in this administrative capacity, as well as deciding to bring in the brilliant Tommy Flowers who, it will be discussed, was the main creative force behind building Colossus (Good 163).
COPELAND #5
Jack Good
Jack Good was a statistician summed to Newman's team to help build an electronic machine to aid in the decoding process. He had previously worked on the Enigma code-breaking and the construction of the Bombe, as well as the Colossus's immediate predecessor, the Heath Robinson machine.
PICTURE: COPELAND #8
According to Good, "one of the greatest secret inventions of the war was the discovery that ordinary teletype tape could be run at thirty miles per hour without tearing" (Budiansky 314). In many way, Good helped pave the way for mechanized aid in code-breaking. It wasn't until he received help from TommyFlowers that the Colossus would take form.
Bill Tutte
Bill Tutte is the man who broke the Tunny code before any machines were even involved. Using two streams of intercepted text, Tutte was able to figure out the entire structure and functionality of the Tunny machine (Lorenz Cipher) without ever having seen it. Granted this took months, and individual decipherings could possibly take weeks, making the translated text unhelpful. That is why the creation of the Colossus was taken up (Good 161).
COPELAND #4
Tommy Flowers
Tommy Flowers was a British Post Office electronics engineer working at the Research Station at Dollis Hill. He was recruited as an automaton specialist by the Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS). Along with Jack Good, he worked on theories derived by noted mathematicians Alan Turing and J von Neumann that led to the production of the Colossus (Ratcliff 205).
PICTURE 41 FROM COPELAND
The biggest contribution to the Colossus construction from Tommy Flowers was the suggestion that the wheel patterns in the machine be generated electronically. In this way, there was no need for dual paper tape, and the issue that plagued the Heath Robinson machine, synchronization, was eliminated (Sale, 354). "Alan Turing contributed to the thinking in developing these machines, as did Max newman and several others, but an enormous part of the credit for designing Colossus, and all the credit for building it, goes to Tommy Flowers" (Copeland 192).
Body of the Colossus
Shadow of the Colossus
Rebuilding
Meaning of the Colossus
Bibliography
Andresen, S.L. “Donald Michie: Secrets of Colossus Revealed.” IEEE Intelligent Systems. Vol. 16. No. 6
Budiansky, Stephen. Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II. New York, NY: The Free Press, 2000.
Cragon, Harvey G. From Fish To Colossus: How the German Lorenz Cipher was broken at Bletchley Park. 2003.
Copeland, B.J. “Colossus: Its Origins and Originators.” Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE. Vol. 26. No 4.
Copeland, B.J. Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park’s Codebreaking Computers. Oxford University Press, 2006.
Good, Jack. “Enigma and Fish.” Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park. Eds. F.H. Hinsley & Alan Stripp. Oxford Univeristy Press, 1993.
Halton, Ken. “The Tunny Machine.” Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park. Eds. F.H. Hinsley & Alan Stripp. Oxford Univeristy Press, 1993
Hayward, Gil. “Operation Tunny.” Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park. Eds. F.H. Hinsley & Alan Stripp. Oxford Univeristy Press, 1993
Hinsley, F.H. “An Introduction to Fish.” Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park. Eds. F.H. Hinsley & Alan Stripp. Oxford Univeristy Press, 1993.
Ratcliff, R.A. Delusions of Intelligence: Enigma, Ultra, and the End of Secure Ciphers. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Sale, Anthony. “The Colossus of Bletchley Park.” IEEE Review. Vol 41 Issue 2. 1995
Sale, Anthony E. "The Colossus of Bletchley Park – The German Cipher System." The First Computers: History and Architectures. Eds. Raul Rojas and Ulf Hashagen. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2000.
Wells, Benjamin. “Advances in I/O, Speedup, and Universality on Colossus, an Unconventional Computer.” Unconventional Computation. 8th International Conference, 2009.
