The autoscritcher and the superscritcher: aids to cryptanalysis of the German Enigma cipher machine, 1944-6

Author

Crawford, D.J. ; Fox, P.E.

Volume

14

Issue

3

fYear

1992

fDate

6/14/1905 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

9

Lastpage

22

Abstract

At the US Army Signal Security Agency during World War II, two systems were built to assist cryptanalysts in breaking messages enciphered on Enigma-type machines. Called the Autoscritcher, the first machine used relay technology. The final system, the Superscritcher, was fully electronic and contained about 3500 vacuum tubes. Both machines operated successfully. The system approach both machines was the same, but differed from that of the Bombe mechanical machines in use to do a similar job. The Superscritcher proved the practicality of electronic digital technology for computing applications. It also showed that a more flexible architecture was needed to allow the solving of more than one class of problems. An account of the design, construction, and test of the Superscritcher and the Autoscritcher is presented.<>

Keywords

cryptography; history; mainframes; military computing; special purpose computers; German Enigma cipher machine; US Army Signal Security Agency; World War II; autoscritcher; cryptanalysis; history; relay technology; superscritcher; vacuum tubes; Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; Computer architecture; Cryptography; Electron tubes; Large-scale systems; Military computing; Relays; Security; Switches; Vacuum systems;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1058-6180

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/85.150065

Filename

150065