Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computersAt last - the secrets of Bletchley Park's powerful codebreaking computers. This is a history of Colossus, the world's first fully-functioning electronic digital computer. Colossus was used during the Second World War at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, where it played an invaluable role cracking enemy codes. Until very recently, much about the Colossus machine was shrouded in secrecy, largely because the codes that were employed remained in use by the British security services until a short time ago. This book only became possible due to the declassification in the US of wartime documents. With an introductory essay on cryptography and the history of code-breaking by Simon Singh, this book reveals the workings of Colossus and the extraordinary staff at Bletchley Park through personal accounts by those who lived and worked with the computer. Among them is the testimony of Thomas Flowers, who was the architect of Colossus and whose personal account, written shortly before he died, is published here for the first time. Other essays consider the historical importance of this remarkable machine, and its impact on the generations of computing technology that followed. |
Contents
1 | |
7 | |
SECTION 2 COLOSSUS | 89 |
SECTION 3 THE NEWMANRY | 155 |
SECTION 4 THE TESTERY | 247 |
SECTION 5 TH FLOWERS LABORATORY AT DOLLIS HILL | 279 |
Other editions - View all
Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Code-breaking Computers B. Jack Copeland Limited preview - 2010 |
Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers B. Jack Copeland Limited preview - 2010 |
Colossus: The First Electronic Computer: The secrets of Bletchley Park's ... B. Jack Copeland and others No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
Alan Turing alphabet Appendix army Banburismus Bletchley Park Bombe break British called Chandler Chapter characters chi-wheels cipher machine ciphertext circuit code wheels codebreakers Colossus Coombs Copeland counter crib cross cryptanalyst cryptographic de-chi deciphering decoding decrypt delta depth document reference Dollis Hill Donald Michie electronic enciphered encryption engineers ENIAC Enigma machine Figure Flowers in interview German Heath Robinson History of Computing ibid impulse intelligence intercepted interview with Randell Knockholt known later letter logic London mathematical mathematicians Max Newman method Michie motor-wheels Newman Newmanry operator Peter Hilton plaintext position produced psi-wheels pulses radio Ralph Tester rectangle relays Report on Tunny Research Section secret sequence shift Siemens signals stored-program stream Sturgeon switches tape teleprinter Testery thyratron Tiltman traffic transmissions Tunny machine Turing’s Turingery Tutte valves wheel patterns wheel settings Wrens