Optical analog computing?

[Greg Rose]

At 01:30 AM 10/2/2002 -0400, John S. Denker wrote:
>"R. A. Hettinga" wrote:
>...
> > "the first computer to crack enigma was optical"
>1) Bletchley Park used optical sensors, which were (and
>still are) the best way to read paper tape at high speed.
>You can read about it in the standard accounts, e.g.
>   http://www.picotech.com/applications/colossus.html

But Colossus was not for Enigma. The bombes used for Enigma were 
electro-mechanical. I'm not aware of any application of optical techniques 
to Enigma, unless they were done in the US and are still classified. And 
clearly, the first bulk breaks of Enigma were done by the bombes, so I 
guess it depends whether you count bombes as computers or not, whether this 
statement has any credibility at all.

Greg.



Williams/Zenon 2004 campaign page: http://www.ben4prez.org

Greg Rose                                       INTERNET: ggr at qualcomm.com
Qualcomm Australia          VOICE:  +61-2-9817 4188   FAX: +61-2-9817 5199
Level 3, 230 Victoria Road,                http://people.qualcomm.com/ggr/
Gladesville NSW 2111    232B EC8F 44C6 C853 D68F  E107 E6BF CD2F 1081 A37C


---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at wasabisystems.com