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GPS_fan
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Joined: Jan 04, 2007
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Location: Hampshire, UK
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 Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:42 am Post subject: Colossus working again |
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Bletchley Park have rebuilt a WWII Colossus and it will be cracking codes again, here
For anybody who's interested, Bletchley Park is open to the public and you can find out a little more about Enigma - here
Don't expect to learn everything though because the people who worked there signed the Official Secrets Act and in the words of the guide who was working the day I visited, those who worked there at the time told him they'd sworn never to divulge information "and never is a long time".
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Andy
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Darren
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| Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:52 am Post subject: |
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It'll be interesting to see the outcome of the head to head with a modern computer. I understand that Colossus is actually very efficient being a single purpose device but I wonder how it will actually compare!
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GPS_fan
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| Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 11:03 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | A virtual Colossus written to run on a Pentium 2 laptop takes about the same time to break a cipher as Colossus |
Colossus MK I - December 1943
Colossus MK II - June 1944
Intel Pentium - March 1993
Intel Pentium II - May 1997
The fact that it compares favourably with a Pentium 2 is good enough for me.
Considering that Colossus came more than 50 years before Pentium II, I'd say that Colossus was ahead of its time - just look at how technology has changed in the past 10 years alone.
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Andy
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Skippy
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Joined: 24/06/2003 00:22:12
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Location: Escaped to the Antipodies! 36.83°S 174.75°E
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| Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:51 pm Post subject: |
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| GPS_fan wrote: | | Considering that Colossus came more than 50 years before Pentium II, I'd say that Colossus was ahead of its time - just look at how technology has changed in the past 10 years alone. |
Amusing comparison, but let's try and run Linux on Colossus. 
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DennisN
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Joined: Feb 27, 2006
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| Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Skippy wrote: | | GPS_fan wrote: | | Considering that Colossus came more than 50 years before Pentium II, I'd say that Colossus was ahead of its time - just look at how technology has changed in the past 10 years alone. |
Amusing comparison, but let's try and run Linux on Colossus. |
As I remember it, we didn't need it to run Linux because we didn't have Linux back then - I think we just wanted it to help us win the war or something (I was quite young at the time so I may be mistaken, but I don't think so).
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GPS_fan
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| Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 12:02 pm Post subject: |
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An amateur cryptographer has beaten the re-built Colossus in a code-cracking challenge - here
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Andy
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Skippy
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Location: Escaped to the Antipodies! 36.83°S 174.75°E
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| Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 1:00 pm Post subject: |
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| GPS_fan wrote: | | An amateur cryptographer has beaten the re-built Colossus in a code-cracking challenge - here |
Colossus was an extraordinary piece of machinery for it's time, but apparently it took just 46 seconds to crack the code on a 1.4 Gig PC...
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GPS_fan
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| Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Skippy wrote: | | Colossus was an extraordinary piece of machinery for it's time |
I totally agree.
...and with the benefit of hindsight and knowledge of the codes used, people can break these codes in the cold light of day - but Colossus was built and used to crack codes real-time and in wartime conditions
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DennisN
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| Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 2:32 pm Post subject: |
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And I contributed old tin cans and stuff to help build it (although at the time I didn't know that - I thought I was building a Spitfire).
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