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I think it can still be considered a computer, just not a general purpose programmable computer right? I'd expect adding machines and stuff to be in a computer

by cma 3y ago

I think it can still be considered a computer, just not a general purpose programmable computer right? I'd expect adding machines and stuff to be in a computer history museum.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
tialaramex 3y ago
It's even more primitive than, say, a mechanical calculator of that era, which yes, the NMC does have in a cabinet near the start. The Bombe isn't doing even simple arithmetic. It's essentially an electric motor, plus a lot of very complicated electrical wiring, to verify whether some particular setup (say, rotors I, V and IV in that order, set to JOM initially) could or could not ever cause the crib (a guess at some text an operator intended to send e.g. "Heil Hitler") to be converted into the ciphertext being attacked. Each such setup is tried, very briefly, and if it couldn't be correct, the motor winds to the next, and the next and so on, until one setup which could be "Heil Hitler" is found. This is a "stop" - the machine literally stops until set going again. Women running the machine note down the exact setup which stopped it, and elsewhere very smart people try assuming this stop is correct - it might be, or, maybe the machine will stop again later, or, maybe the crib was wrong, maybe this message has a typo, "Heil Hiter"... It's fantastically complicated but only in the same way that for example the movement of swallows is complicated. There's a relatively simple rule, it's just followed to an extreme degree and so that's impressive. It's not really very clever, and it's nothing like a computer. Colossus isn't a programmable computer. It's for attacking Lorenz, so the people who built it didn't care that to attack a slightly different cipher the machine must be taken to pieces and re-assembled accordingly, they were here to attack Lorenz. In the rest of the early gallery there are several machines which are, or aren't, depending on how you squint truly programmable, truly electronics, truly storing the program and so on. But the Bombe is to these machines as the Super Bowl is to tennis. It's not that it's a very primitive and strange game of tennis, it's not tennis at all.
- Animats 2y ago
  Yes. Those machines were key-testers, not general purpose computers. Their modern descendants are Bitcoin miners with custom ASICs. They do one thing, very fast. As with Bitcoin miners, what led to success was mass production. Bombe-type machines were built in quantity by the British Tabulating Machine Company in the UK, and the National Cash Register Company in the US. There was also a Western Electric prototype built from telephone relays. Interestingly, the US cryptanalysis effort against Japan was statistical, rather than brute-force search.[1] Much statistical work was done using IBM tabulating machines. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20210828044031/https://cryptocellar.org/files/PURPLE_History.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20210828044031/https://cryptocel...
- cma 2y ago
  It isn't programmable but neither is an early adding machine. I don't see a problem with either being in a computer museum.

by cma 3y ago

I think it can still be considered a computer, just not a general purpose programmable computer right? I'd expect adding machines and stuff to be in a computer history museum.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

tialaramex 3y ago

It's even more primitive than, say, a mechanical calculator of that era, which yes, the NMC does have in a cabinet near the start. The Bombe isn't doing even simple arithmetic. It's essentially an electric motor, plus a lot of very complicated electrical wiring, to verify whether some particular setup (say, rotors I, V and IV in that order, set to JOM initially) could or could not ever cause the crib (a guess at some text an operator intended to send e.g. "Heil Hitler") to be converted into the ciphertext being attacked. Each such setup is tried, very briefly, and if it couldn't be correct, the motor winds to the next, and the next and so on, until one setup which could be "Heil Hitler" is found. This is a "stop" - the machine literally stops until set going again. Women running the machine note down the exact setup which stopped it, and elsewhere very smart people try assuming this stop is correct - it might be, or, maybe the machine will stop again later, or, maybe the crib was wrong, maybe this message has a typo, "Heil Hiter"... It's fantastically complicated but only in the same way that for example the movement of swallows is complicated. There's a relatively simple rule, it's just followed to an extreme degree and so that's impressive. It's not really very clever, and it's nothing like a computer. Colossus isn't a programmable computer. It's for attacking Lorenz, so the people who built it didn't care that to attack a slightly different cipher the machine must be taken to pieces and re-assembled accordingly, they were here to attack Lorenz. In the rest of the early gallery there are several machines which are, or aren't, depending on how you squint truly programmable, truly electronics, truly storing the program and so on. But the Bombe is to these machines as the Super Bowl is to tennis. It's not that it's a very primitive and strange game of tennis, it's not tennis at all.

Animats 2y ago
Yes. Those machines were key-testers, not general purpose computers. Their modern descendants are Bitcoin miners with custom ASICs. They do one thing, very fast. As with Bitcoin miners, what led to success was mass production. Bombe-type machines were built in quantity by the British Tabulating Machine Company in the UK, and the National Cash Register Company in the US. There was also a Western Electric prototype built from telephone relays. Interestingly, the US cryptanalysis effort against Japan was statistical, rather than brute-force search.[1] Much statistical work was done using IBM tabulating machines. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20210828044031/https://cryptocellar.org/files/PURPLE_History.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20210828044031/https://cryptocel...
cma 2y ago
It isn't programmable but neither is an early adding machine. I don't see a problem with either being in a computer museum.