Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

Geniuses at war : Bletchley Park, Colossus, and the dawn of the digital age / David A. Price.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2021Edition: First editionDescription: 243 pages ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780525521549
  • 0525521542
Other title:
  • Bletchley Park, Colossus, and the dawn of the digital age
Subject(s):
Contents:
Prologue -- The right type of recruit -- The palace coup -- Breaking Tunny -- The soul of a new machine -- Decrypting for D-Day -- After the war -- Epilogue: Turing's child machine, 1968.
Summary: "Geniuses at War is the dramatic, untold story of the brilliant team who built the world's first digital electronic computer at Bletchley Park, during a critical time in World War II. Decoding the communication of the Nazi high command was imperative for the success of the Allied invasion of Normandy. The Nazi missives were encrypted by the "Tunny" cipher, a code that was orders of magnitude more difficult to crack than the infamous Enigma code. But Tommy Flowers, a maverick English working-class engineer, devised the ingenious, daring, and controversial plan to build a machine that could think at breathtaking speed and break the code in nearly real time. Together with the pioneering mathematician Max Newman and Enigma code-breaker Alan Turing, Flowers and his team produced--against the odds, the clock, and a resistant leadership--Colossus, the world's first digital electronic computer, the machine that would help bring the war to an end. With fascinating detail and illuminating insight, David A. Price's Geniuses at War tells, for the first time, the mesmerizing story of the great minds behind Colossus, and chronicles their remarkable feats of engineering genius which ushered in the dawn of the digital age"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 940.5486 P945 Available 33111010536015
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The dramatic, untold story of the brilliant team whose feats of innovation and engineering created the world's first digital electronic computer-decrypting the Nazis' toughest code, helping bring an end to WWII, and ushering in the information age.

Planning the invasion of Normandy, the Allies knew that decoding the communications of the Nazi high command was imperative for its success. But standing in their way was an encryption machine they called Tunny (British English for "tuna"), which was vastly more difficult to crack than the infamous Enigma cipher.

To surmount this seemingly impossible challenge, Alan Turing, the Enigma codebreaker, brought in a maverick English working-class engineer named Tommy Flowers who devised the ingenious, daring, and controversial plan to build a machine that would calculate at breathtaking speed and break the code in nearly real time. Together with the pioneering mathematician Max Newman, Flowers and his team produced-against the odds, the clock, and a resistant leadership-Colossus, the world's first digital electronic computer, the machine that would help bring the war to an end.

Drawing upon recently declassified sources, David A. Price's Geniuses at War tells, for the first time, the full mesmerizing story of the great minds behind Colossus and chronicles the remarkable feats of engineering genius that marked the dawn of the digital age.

"A Borzoi book."--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue -- The right type of recruit -- The palace coup -- Breaking Tunny -- The soul of a new machine -- Decrypting for D-Day -- After the war -- Epilogue: Turing's child machine, 1968.

"Geniuses at War is the dramatic, untold story of the brilliant team who built the world's first digital electronic computer at Bletchley Park, during a critical time in World War II. Decoding the communication of the Nazi high command was imperative for the success of the Allied invasion of Normandy. The Nazi missives were encrypted by the "Tunny" cipher, a code that was orders of magnitude more difficult to crack than the infamous Enigma code. But Tommy Flowers, a maverick English working-class engineer, devised the ingenious, daring, and controversial plan to build a machine that could think at breathtaking speed and break the code in nearly real time. Together with the pioneering mathematician Max Newman and Enigma code-breaker Alan Turing, Flowers and his team produced--against the odds, the clock, and a resistant leadership--Colossus, the world's first digital electronic computer, the machine that would help bring the war to an end. With fascinating detail and illuminating insight, David A. Price's Geniuses at War tells, for the first time, the mesmerizing story of the great minds behind Colossus, and chronicles their remarkable feats of engineering genius which ushered in the dawn of the digital age"-- Provided by publisher.

Powered by Koha