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from the cracking-the-code-with-friction-valves-and-pulleys dept.
GCHQ has released never before seen images of Colossus, the UK's secret code-breaking computer credited with helping the Allies win World War Two:
The intelligence agency is publishing them to mark the 80th anniversary of the device's invention.
It says they "shed new light" on the "genesis and workings of Colossus", which is considered by many to be the first digital computer.
Its existence was kept largely secret until the early 2000s.
[...] The first Colossus began operating from Bletchley Park, the home of the UK's codebreakers, in early 1944. By the end of the war there were 10 computers helping to decipher the Nazi messages.
Fitted with 2,500 valves and standing at more than 2 metres tall, Colossus required a team of skilled operators and technicians to run and maintain it.
[...] Blueprints of its inner workings have also been made public for the first time, along with a letter referring to "rather alarming German instructions" intercepted by Colossus, as well as an audio clip of the machine at work.
Originally spotted on Herbert Bruderer's blog.
Related: Cryptography is the Bombe: Britain's Enigma-Cracker on Display in New Home
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday January 28 2024, @03:47PM (1 child)
For 80 years?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Touché) by pe1rxq on Sunday January 28 2024, @04:52PM
No, but once you mark stuff as a secret it tends to become harder to release it later. The longer you wait the more embarassing it can get. At some point it becomes 'convenient' to pretend it never happened.