Colossus cracking codes after a 60 year break..

Colossus, one of the first "modern" digital computers is once again cracking codes at Bletchley Park in the UK. BBC reports today that after a 14 year rebuilding project, it is online and codebreaking...competeing with modern machines (for fun). It took so long to rebuild because after the war all 10 machines were broken up to protect their working secrets.

Colossus played an extremely important roll during WWII, particularly during the build up and after D-Day. It is widely believed that Colossus and the other efforts at Bletchley shortened the war in Europe by at least 18 months.

It is worth noting that Colossus, with its 2000 or so VALVES and truck-sized bulk cracks codes at about the same pace as a "virtual Colossus" running on a Pentium 2 laptop....oh, and it is just orders of magnitude cooler.

See Codebreakers, The Inside Story of Bletchley Park for a good history (and read).