[2005] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: secret history of the development of PK crypto
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Arnold G. Reinhold)
Thu Dec 25 02:28:50 1997
In-Reply-To: <199712240447.UAA29040@servo.qualcomm.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 21:47:09 -0500
To: Phil Karn <karn@qualcomm.com>, smb@research.att.com
From: "Arnold G. Reinhold" <reinhold@world.std.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net, mab@crypto.com, karn@qualcomm.com
At 8:47 PM -0800 12/23/97, Phil Karn quoted:
>>He spoke of National Security Action Memorandum 160 (from June 6, 1962),
>>entitled "Permissive Links for Nuclear Weapons in NATO". The claim was
>>that this memo -- signed by President Kennedy and endorsing a memo from
>>his science advisor, Jerome Weisner -- was the basis for the invention
>>of public key cryptography by NSA. Simmons nodded in vigorous agreement.
>
In 1962 computers that could impliment public key crypto would
significantly increase the size of a nuclear weapon. The closest thing I
can think of from that era was the Minuteman I guidance computer which was
based on a fixed head disk. Integrated circuits, ROM and RAM weren't even
gleams in engineers eyes. The Apolo guidance computer which was developed
in the mid '60s had 36K of 15 bit words. It weighed about 100 lb and
consumed 100 watts of power.
Perhaps the PAL equipment, if it was PK based, was housed in control
centers and fed decrypted triggering information to the warheads.
Arnold Reinhold
