Classic Colossus takes on modern PCs in code-breaking exercise

In a clash of classic technology against modern technology, a reconstructed version of the famous World War II ‘Colossus’ code-breaking machine is to be pitted against a team of today’s modern PC operators in a bid to see which can win through in deciphering secret radio transmissions dispatched from Germany. World War II machine 'Colossus' goes head-to-head with modern PC technology in code-breaking challenge. Credit: BBC.co.uk.

World War II machine 'Colossus' goes head-to-head with modern PC technology in code-breaking challenge. Credit: BBC.co.uk.An engineering team led by Tony Sale has rebuilt the Colossus code-breaking machine, which is comparable in size to a lorry and required some 14 years of painstaking construction. Despite being a product of the 1940s, Mr. Sale remains confident that the machine can still hold its own against the advances of modern technology. "It’s going to be an interesting challenge," he commented in a Reuters report, "but I think we’ll win."The Colossus machine and its wartime operators, which included renowned English mathematician and cryptographer Alan Turing, were praised by then Prime Minister Winston Churchill, with Churchill offering that the Bletchley-based code-breaking apparatus helped reduce the conflict by around 18 months.Engineers based at the Heinz Nixdorf Museum in Paderborn, Germany, will release three secret German radio messages once they have been encoded using the Lorenz cipher, which Germany used for disguising its secret communications during WWII. It will then be down to the Colossus team and the rival PC group to intercept the messages and set about deciphering the text.Mr. Sale, who stresses the messages will avoid any potential sensitivities by being based on detailed descriptions of the Heinz Nixdorf Museum rather than any form of fake secret war documentation, said the deciphering process could take from six hours to a full day once interception was complete.While Mr. Sale hopes the process will be leaning more toward the lower end of that projection, the Colossus and its team were able to decipher coded messages in just a few hours, providing invaluable advance information regarding enemy tactics and strategies.