Colossus, the computer that deciphered messages of Hitler’s 70th birthday

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It was developed by British intelligence forces to intercept and decode encrypted documents the Germans in World War II

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GOOGLE CULTURAL INSTITUTE/MOC
The Colossus was you rebuild and is located in the exact place I worked the “Colossus No. 9»

 

The first electronic computer, Colossus, met this week 70 years. It was a great machine that British forces used intelligence to decipher intercepted messages in codes of Hitler and his generals during World War II.

His birthday is celebrated on February 5 because a day like that, but in 1944 intercepts the first message encrypted under the Lorenz code, very complex to analyze at that time.

The machine was created by an engineer of the British Post OfficeTommy Flowers , who was the son of a bricklayer. Flowers learned mechanical engineering before they join the evening classes electrical engineering.

Flowers designed Colossus with intent to accelerate the process of code breaking , and indeed, the end of World War II, had been operating 10 of these machines, as helpers of the war. However, little was known about the existence of the Colossus because at the end of the war, eight of the ten machines were dismantled and not revealed its existence until 30 years later.

It was called Colossus for its size. The computer occupied a living room. According to reports the National Museum of Computing (Moc) of England, was two meters tall, five meters wide and three deep. It weighed more than five tons, and each machine had 2,500 valves aligned in rows of two meters.

Colossus processed 5,000 characters per second, an amount “colossal” for that time. Had about 100 logic gates and 10,000 resistors connected in a wired 7 kilometers.

Tim Reynolds, president of MOC, paid tribute to the 70 years of this computer, as well as people who are still alive who worked with this device.

Reynolds pointed “allies” could take up to four hours straight they decipher a message. It is believed that the Allies read the decrypted messages even before they arrived at the highest German military commandAbout 550 people worked with ten “Colossi” operating in Bletchley Park.

Google released a documentary last year to commemorate the construction of the Colossus. In this experience of several engineers who helped build the machines and people who worked with the team was recounted.

In 1994 a project was launched to rebuild one of the Colossuswhich was completed 13 years later in 2007. The task was complicated because all the plans for the original building were removed.

Source|ABC