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From: sjn@cray.com (Scott Narveson)
Subject: Enigma (was: Roger Penrose's new book)
Message-ID: <1994Oct24.131821.3911@driftwood.cray.com>
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References: <1994Oct21.084708.23299@driftwood.cray.com> <AST.153.782950009@postman.hsn.no> <mack.782955295@redwood007> <Cy6983.oHB@nyongwa.montreal.qc.ca> <tim.whitley-2410941042570001@ithaka.cray.com>
Date: 24 Oct 94 13:18:20 CDT
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Warning: posting from memory here, and the whole topic is fraught with
folklore and incorrect information...

Tim Whitley (tim.whitley@cray.com) wrote:

>No, indeed.  Enigma WAS a German code machine.  Alan Turing was a British
>mathematician involved in breaking its code.

...and was also a noteworthy "computation theory" sort of guy.  "Turing
machine", and all that.

>                                              I believe that the Americans
>and British purchased versions of the Enigma hardware, but the code
>"software" remained a problem until cracked.

I don't think that this technology was for sale before the war. :-)
If I recall correctly, the Poles provided working copies of Enigma to
the British, along with doing some of the early analysis of the
cipher itself.

>                                              It has been suggested, as
>the documents have been declassified over recent years, that many of the
>Allied victories were not so much due to superior generalship, but due to
>foreknowledge of the Germans' plans.  This foreknowledge came from knowing
>the Germans' code!  [...]

Very true.  In addition, after the war the Allies didn't reveal their
ability to break Enigma, to the extent that the Germans even marketed
commercial versions of it.  I think it was a 60 Minutes segment in the
mid-'70s that finally revealed much of the Enigma story in the mainstream
press.

Note the Followup-to -- perhaps the talk.politics.crypto folks can stop
shouting about PGP and Clipper long enough to correct my errors and
provide references to more authoritative sources. :-)

>Tim

>=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=
> Tim Whitley, Cray Research, Inc.  ((  tim.whitley@cray.com        
> 655A Lone Oak Drive                )) (612) 683-7148              
> Eagan, MN  55121                  ((  "These are my views only!"  

	- Scott
--

 Scott Narveson                         (612) 683-5803 (voice)
 Customer Service Tools                 (612) 683-5599 (fax)
 Cray Research, Inc.                    sjn@cray.com
