The Colossus Of Bletchley Park
More than 60 years after the last one was dismantled, a Colossus code-breaking computer has whirred back to life and started cracking coded messages. The ultra-secret Colossus Mark II was designed and built by the boffins at Bletchley Park, the British code-breaking installation during World War Two. There were a total of ten built and they worked around the clock, tended by a staff of 550. Immediately after the war, Winston Churchill ordered them destroyed. But some of the proud engineers and technicians kept information about the machines and a new one has been built. The new-old machine deciphered a message sent in a Second World War German code in three hours and 35 minutes. (That first message was decoded faster by a German man using a laptop computer.)
It played a pivotal role in cracking Nazi codes during the Second World War.
But yesterday the Germans finally got the better of Britain's Colossus codebreaking computer.
The rebuilt machine had been taking part in a contest against modern computers to decipher a message which was originally sent in 1938 using Nazi code.
It completed the exercise in a respectable three hours and 35 minutes but was pipped to the post by an amateur cryptographer from Bonn.
The exercise marked the launch of the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, where Colossus was created in the 1940s.
The original ten Colossus machines, which were the world's first programmable digital computers, began service in 1944. They are thought to have saved thousands of lives and shortened the war by months.
But for reasons of secrecy Winston Churchill ordered the destruction of all the machines in 1945 following the Allied victory.
Over the last 14 years, experts at Bletchley rebuilt a Colossus using plans and information gleaned from those involved in the creation of the original.
It is an interesting story. Fun for history buffs and geeks of all ages! More on Colossus from the original curator of the Bletchley Park Museum, Tony Sales. Here's a Wired article on the project. Wikipedia here.
By Bleepless, Friday, 16 November , 2007 @ 8:23 pm
Ojdf kpc, Hbjvt.
By Gaius, Friday, 16 November , 2007 @ 8:31 pm
Colossus says watch your language!
By Laurence F. Sheldon, Jr., Friday, 16 November , 2007 @ 10:34 pm
I visited Bletchley Park several years ago and got to spend a few minutes with Mr. Sales.
If you are ever in that part of the world, a tour is a must see–even if you have no interest in computers.
One of he fascinationg things is the machines you see there predate Eniac and the fokls in Ames–but nobody could talk about it.