Synergy User Manual and Tutorial. - THE CORE MEMORY

Synergy User Manual and Tutorial
cryptanalysis of German Fish teleprinter ciphers used during World War II. This
electromechanical attempt at a one-time pad was the German military’s most secure
method of communication. Prior to knowledge of Zuse’s Z3, this was considered to be
the first totally electronic computing device, using only vacuum tubes as opposed to
relays in the Z3. This special purpose computer was equipped with very fast optical
punch card readers for input. Nine of the improved Mark II machines were constructed
and the original COLOSSUS Mark I was converted, for a total of ten machines. These
machines were considered to be of the highest level of secrecy. After the end of the war,
by direct orders from Churchill, all ten machines were destroyed—reduced into pieces no
larger than a man’s hand. The COLOSSUS, Heath Robinson (precursor to the
COLOSSUS) and the Bombe (a machine designed by Alan Turing) are all in the process
of reconstruction to preserve these important achievements.
The Universal Automatic Computer I (UNIVAC I) was designed by J. Presper Eckert and
John Mauchly in 1947. The machine, constructed by Eckert-Mauchly Computer
Corporation, founded by Eckert and Mauchly in 1946 but later purchased by Sperry-
Rand, was delivered to the US Census Bureau in 1951 at a cost of $159,000. By 1953,
three UNIVACs were in operation and by 1958 there were forty-six in the service of
government departments and private organizations. Rand sold the later machines for
more than $1,000,000 each.
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