Reconstruction of code-breaking computer

[elasticbowman]

That's very interesting, but.. can it play Crysis?

[BoaVenom18]

why doesnt the narrarators voice go down at the end of sentences? it just drags on.

ex

its just like the origionalllllllllllll....

[mabhekaphansi]

top stuff!

[scientolofag]

He reminds me of the doctor from Half-life

[carl0071]

Fantastic machine! not a silicon chip in sight, men with pencils & paper designed it and it reads 5,000 characters per second..... amazing!

[chunchuck2000]

turns out that they are sending messages in german

[cyberspy79]

can this computer run call of duty 4: modern warfare 2?

[CALLUMG33V3S]

No, that's why its epic.

[clanOT]

this is great and deserves respect... even though the guy obviously loves what he is doing i cant help but feel sorry for him

[nixnix99]

Damn, my radio transmissions are no longer safe!!

[pudgylumpkins]

lmfao!!

[gastonytHQ]

Shortest fucking tie ever

[snivesz32]

You can probably solve the same problem today in a browser with javascript in under 10 seconds.

[ffeenixxx]

Hooray for the UK! I bet the Yanks cant believe they didn't invent it lol. If they had done can you imagine them keeping it a secret until the 70s. No offence Yanks!

[iJ0NES]

Fantastic work! Now someone should finish up Babbage's machines.

[intheshitter]

Does it play Crysis?

[king15060]

yes, however performance suffers, and it only supports DX8.

[2344553]

Seeing as Crysis is roughly 7 billion bytes, and the tape is fed at 35mph (1 564.64 cm/s) then the tape for Crysis would have to be 4473.9 km long (2779.9 miles), meaning that at 35mph it would take 79.4 hours to load. So you could run it, but at 0.0000349728333 FPS.

[fuckingyourcorpse]

Haha, lot's of lag then.

[caseygtr]

Nice math work *nods*

[aidencurl]

get a life?

[Fangornmmc]

@2344553

well you are quite right but it still needs to be clocked to the screen so that would add another delay. Ofcourse colussus lacks the massive storage Crysis needs in-game so practically it is entirely impossible...you probaly knew that already but ooh never mind...

i wonder how big crysis would be if they wrote it in pure assembly and with full optimization...I think way and way smaller. There are some under 8K games for windows out that are pretty good looking...

[niarthunderus]

@2344553 You deserve a cookie.

[TheSciFiCat]

I remember how this computer depicted in the movie "Enigma"

[CHAS1422]

The technology we leave behind is often as remarkable as the new technology. It is the evolution of method that makes the less effecient techniques fade and a new ones emerge. It is easy to take for granted that what we have now is superior, but in reality it is simply an accumulation of microchanges over the years. Even in education we filter out the obsolete steps that were the foundations of our current knowledge base. Projects like this put us in touch with remarkable technology of the past.

[incog88]

I'm glad they finally got the funding after years of neglect :)

[majoche7]

all of that machinery is in a device the size of my finger, only the smaller one is about 1000times more efficient, less expensive, less complicated, and can do more things

amazing

[ridingisasport]

And we could do that today with a laptop and a 13 year old.

But it was cooler back then.

Way cooler

[PeXis]

We could do that even with our cellphones like hundred times faster.

[SiggyMe]

This is important part of human history that can be shared with succeeding generation so they can appreciate with having " I was there feeling."

[mrbreaker101]

Those who say this is a waste of time are complete morons, undeserving of the PC or Mac they used to write their comment.

[M4573RK3YB04RD]

linux ftw bitches

[bishop8000]

Fantastic

[lnwolf41]

good video, maybe a laptop could do it, but how many computer wizzes could build the old style and actually make it work, also that was built in 1940 one shouldn't belittle such achevment.

[notNEWW]

i like folks who figure stuff out like that ... it's genius sometimes ... to reverse engineer you know? ... like who can make the first radar machine again? i mean .. no one is taught it ...you have to figure it out

[rush2905]

why would you build that... waste all that time building something a laptop would be capable of and even more.

[samrudoff]

@rush2905

thats not the point the point is that they reproduced a part of our history not to mention DATA INPUT at 30MPH :O

[kazimann]

I think you're missing the point here.

It's a fine show piece to show people of it's workings up close.

[ahdkaw]

And does this mean that England will finally get the credit we deserve in American textbooks? Probably not, they'll still say it was the ENIAC.

Lies!

[MichelIchiy]

mimimimi

[Buttmunch5000]

that is quite amazing a computer you can see working, well see things being inputted anyway.

[poxart]

so if you were to take your average home computer today to run the same task, how long would it take? and how complex is this programing?

[amicusnemini]

what are you guys talking about ? she has a sexy voice

[Maracachucho]

no.

watch?v=tl-JBZmPDkc

now this is a sexy voice. sadly she only did it once.

[joejames007]

Love New Scientist, but that narrator has an annoying voice

[shim2dawg]

what a waste of time

[Baxxter101]

History is not a waste of time fool. Understanding HOW and WHY and WHAT current technology evolved from is fundamental for understanding future changes and applications.

[TheKuriIchi]

Oh, and the history of this machine is interesting in terms of the results it produced.

It really did help win WWII by cutting decryption times down to the point where the intelligence revealed was actually useful in the field.

Take the Battle of the Atlantic as just one big example. The Allied Navies would have lost a lot more ships to the German U-Boat 'Wolf Packs' had they relayed on the previous systems for deciphering code.

Britain would likely have been cut-off and starved into defeat.

[Minttzz]

What's with all these "waste of money" comments?

What a stupid bunch of cunts.

[TheKuriIchi]

Could people really SLOW DOWN THE TYPING!!!!!!!

Most of these comments are incoherent and are betraying the authors view and argument by being portrayed in gibberish. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, it is not a race.

Type, read, amend, then post!

[iostream1]

computer history doesn't go back long enough to be interesting.

[DudeBobmation]

Wow... that guy wasted his last years of life.... old people are retards.

[duncality]

fucking huge waste of time

[youstupidwoman]

to a fucking moron ,, perhaps ,,

[iostream1]

what's the point?

[youstupidwoman]

,,,the pleasure of achievement , reason is the understanding the outcome of an action once set in motion ,

just go back and sip your wine spritzer and think your so smart

[iostream1]

congratz, you just ruined ure wise guy comment by not making sense. And next time put it in quotations.

[youstupidwoman]

fuvk off olo

[mannydmammoth]

wow.. that is so impressive!

[3doog]

what is the processor's speed

[netsoj]

< 100 Mhz if that.

[ChrisHagadol]

i'd evan say <1 Mhz

[xxBlackpspxx]

naaah. if you would google for 10 seconds you would know that its 5.8mhz.

[ChrisHagadol]

than 1 Mhz is closer than 100 Mhz ;)

but thanks alot for this noumber, I am impresser :)

[xxBlackpspxx]

hi. i googled for 10 seconds and i found out the the processors speed of this computer is 5.8mhz

[Danmill23]

That IS amazing!

[2Luke]

this is insane! reconstructing that from pictures and some drawings... just insane!

[roidroid]

it's funny all these "waste of time and money" comments.

...all those comments were made by people who never visit museums anyway. So no-one cares what you philistines think. Go watch your cartoons.

[blue30587]

I'm pro-building-the-machine, and anti-the-lady's-voice.

in re the machine, it's cool to preserve history for the future, just so people can appreciate where the things they have came from.

As for the voice, all I ask of a public speaker is that she vary the cadence of her sentences from time to time. This woman is every bit as annoying as an American valley girl who ends every sentence as if it were a question?

[javierenchina]

what a freaking rube goldberg machine

[regregex]

@javierenchina No, the 'Heath Robinson' is next door.

[glenbruce]

i'm going to build a dinosaur.

don't believe me?? well fuck you.

[DoctorPlausible]

I love wasting time and money. That's what they are for.

[AtomicKennen]

Imma say this once:I dont think the lady's voice is annoying at all.We are here to check out their project, not to comment on the voice...

[defect530]

i guess its for history? I know that guy sure is ancient. ^^

[gggreggg]

never underestimate the wisdom that can come only with age!!!!!

[defect530]

Google and the Internet are taking over Wisdom

[Lijacote]

No. Nothing takes over Wisdom, fearmonger.

[defect530]

I was replying to a comment and im not a fearmonger because a dont give a shit

[Lijacote]

If you don't give a shit, don't reply to a comment.

Sorry about the mistake, YouTube's comment system is strange. They really should work on the way they display replies.

[fox9ninja]

what a wonderful waste of money. and the ladies voice is incredibly annoying,

[RarewareLover]

yea really, an iphone probably has more computing power and definitely more memory

[aswesee]

maybe they can decode her voice into somthing that doesn't sound annoying

[wlchase]

Amazing work!

[singlespies]

Fascinating story - I've never heard this piece of history before. It would be great if NewScientist would occasionally make longer videos on some subjects!

[TheMerlinOfAR]

Nah, I like the bite sized info.

[WillP999]

This is great and all, but what's the point?

[Tailsown]

haha thx god we advance are desktop computers and machinery computers

[pippodeltrappeto]

And today's pc mouses are powerful than this...

[RareAirSupply]

Oh vacuum tubes, you are so universal...

[Snowflake70]

wonder what the tie in is for this Colossus machine being named after the cirtter in the movie The Forbin Project? AI - Gray Goo, nanotechnology, MEMS, etc. etc.....

[JuniorDExchangecore]

Uhh... nooo.... Colossus is a Greek/Roman myth of where there is basically a very large guy made of bronze. Since most computer back then used bronze and things of the such, it makes total sense... with it filling up a room and all. :P

[LizzyAston]

wow, someone has some spare time

[fathead431]

cool! im going there n like 2 weeks on a school trip so ill see it then!

[johncrwarner]

And it is a good day out too.

[BillyBobsEel]

nice tie

[3kToT]

what colossal waste of time, though I respect the ppl who rebuilt it

[sweYoda]

is it a 4 GHz quad core?

[fathead431]

haha nice one

[yuriythebest]

hehe it's cool how we advanced. back then data input was measured in "miles per hour" ROFL

on a different note, todays PC's wouldn't be possible without that first step.

[DTevr89]

If we could still measure the amount of data a computer can compute today in MPH how fast would it be going?

[yuriythebest]

probably warp 10

[paulwall142]

Wtf, are you retarted, a computer doesnt travel

[LukeSkyscraper]

well lets see.. 5000 cps = 30mph.. Data Transfer on a hard disk is typically 300Mbps which is, equating a character to 8 bits, roughly 39,300,00 cps ( call it 40 million) so that's 8000 times faster so that paper tape would have to travel at 8000x30 mph = 240,000 mph to get the same transfer rate. You could travel to the moon for an evening meal at that speed.

[PeterD2S]

you can't go to the moon with a HD as a vehicle

[CactosS]

i bet the you can do that with today cellphone

[IdleGod]

If by cell phone, you mean wristwatch, then yes. :)

[Phi16180]

what a waste of money. god fuck capitalism.

[EndlessPalm]

This is for museum purposes you twat.

[Phi16180]

museum purposes!? LOL, why not put a contemporary one then? yes spend millions to teach kids about obsolete technology hazaa!

[BeortheMad]

Sigh... brighten up would you?

[MonsterMozz]

It teaches people about history, a good thing to do, especially to Americans who think the enigma machine was captured by Bon Jovi.

[Phi16180]

thats what school is for, millions on a machine so they can look at it and not understand how it works, not so much.

[johncrwarner]

Actually it was done by volunteers and in the evenings and weekends and has been a labour of love for them.

Try visiting the museum and taking a look before criticising the effort of some volunteers.

[EndlessPalm]

I really enjoy your fascist mentality, maybe we should throw retards and other undesirables into the fire since they drain the economy, hm? If your so keen on total maximization of time and energy in terms of economic yield, then what the fuck are you doing on you tube posting stupid comments when you could be working right now.

Shut the fuck up hypocrite and learn to appreciate the past.

[Phi16180]

#1 thats not fascism

#2 happy people yield greater results, thus, working all the time is not beneficial

#3 actually we should abort retards and others who will simply leech off of humanity, but after birth, then it should be left to nature.

#4 I do appreciate the past, just not the past of obsolete technology used only for war. that is simply useless history with no relevance to the present or future.

[Zotoaster]

What do you mean it's "simply useless history with no relevance to the present or future"? If this wasn't invented in the first place, would you be able to use your computer the way you do now? No.

These people enjoyed working on this project. So wtf is your problem?

[netsoj]

It's not useless history but it is in fact useless for advancement of the future...

[Phi16180]

this has nothing to do with the way i use my computer and has no relevance to the development of computers. also, it was important that was invented does not mean that it is important to learn the history of the invention itself. youre dumb.

[Phi16180]

sry i forgot #5

ur gay.

[EndlessPalm]

Yeah, thats a real good comeback you fucking bigot. Pathetic morons like you with such abominable ideals should be utterly shunned from society.

[Phi16180]

i have gay friends

owned again

[EndlessPalm]

Not even going to bother lowering myself to talk to you anymore, fuck off and enjoy ignorance.

[Phi16180]

first thing we learned in debate: avoiding or ending a debate before a conclusion is reached is as close to acknowledging defeat that a prideful person will ever get.

[njimko23]

Its a shame the original was lost. As is commonly the case, it takes a long time to realize the full historic significance of something until long after. At least we know have the replica for future generations to be able to see how computers were invented.

[MagikGimp]

I presume he worked there back in the day or that is an awesome achievement. Can't ask for a better thing to keep you occupied in your twilight years.

[bigDbigDbigD]

Who paid for this? What a waste!

[puretroubleman]

we might need it to fight the germans again

[zombiehellmonkey]

they build it, then send it back in time

[djmisplacedmarblesTV]

lovely thing to do, what an amazing challenge to rebuild that from 8 photos and a few fragments of design sheets

well done then , well done now !!

[momo1tm]

it's cool, but it's a waste of time and money.

[oskarsoftw]

Quick question: Why?

[TMNWG]

Quick answer: why not? :)

[Gichnni]

Quick response: Because it's useless and waste of money / Time.

[MulcheArcade]

Have some appreciation for history, early technology is interesting.

[ervin2]

Stupid question: Why?

[Shalek]

To beat the soviets!

[Athaeus]

Quick answer: Because we can!

[RustyCyler]

The Germans used code in WW2 that was considered un-breakable and they coded everything. But the US\Allies secretly broke the German code with this machine, & it helped bring down the Germans & put an end to the fighting in Europe. It was a major breakthrough & represents American & UK persistence & brainpower in breaking the German code. Its full of history. There is plenty of info about the WW2 code breakers. Its deals with spies and stuff :) Google "enigma machine"

[madchef]

Actually, Bombe broke enigma. The machine here is colossus which was designed to break Lorenz. If you want to learn more, google "lorenz colossus"

[Richardgwm]

Cool

[NoPrivacyANYMORE10]

i agree with TFPyrosux. Irksome. For Chrissake get someone with a pleasant voice NewScientist.

As far as this goes --what a TOTAL waste of time, money, brainpower. Show us the Pentagan's best Cray. THAT'S what we want to see. Hal6000. And we want to see it NOW. YESTERDAY.

[johncrwarner]

If you visit the Museum at Bletchley you can see the huts where Dr Tommy Flowers MBE built the first digital programmable computer and he was a Post Office Engineer who used no technology later than 1927 in the building. The Colossus machines were destroyed at the end of the war and were kept secret until 1970 when the Americans released papers under the freedom of information act. These machines were vital to the war effort and it was done by volunteers in their spare time.

[NoPrivacyANYMORE10]

yes, you're right --fair comment. I wish them well and i'm sure there will be many people who take a keen interest in their project.

[NickSansivero]

so they spent 15 years reconstructing old useless machinery?

[eSilva90]

useless? i don't think so

[RustyCyler]

Its a major piece of history that greatly contributed to bringing down the Nazi's in WW2 and saved countless lives. For christs sakes your post makes you look very uneducated.

[NickSansivero]

oh my god i know right?

[RustyCyler]

oops my bad Nick, I just seen that your only 16 yrs old.

Hope ya learned something about history today :)

[NickSansivero]

Yup thanks man =D

[Niosus]

it maybe meant a lot back then... but the amount of money that went into this is a waste actually, they could make it partially digital and save a lot of time and money.

Strange actually, 60 years to go from that HUGE thing that doesn't do a lot to a world that is shaped by computers. Very impressive. I look forward to the next 60 years :D

[roidroid]

yeah and when they build replicas of the first ever car, to put into museums - why don't they just save time and money and just put a modern Hyundai Getz in the museum instead - AMIRITE?

And when they build replica's of the Write brothers plane for museums, why don't they just save time and money, buy a modern Cessna and put that in there instead - AMIRITE?

(idiot)

[Paxmax]

now that was a huge task!!

[randomviewer896]

now all of that can be done in less than a second with a normal computer that uses less than 1% of the energy used by that thing.

[andrefonseca12]

Nice :)