>> I'm a litle surprised to hear that they use anything as 
>> modern as a CD though...
> 
> Actually the desktop systems they buy for administration purposes are 
> generally the same stuff you can buy at any office supply store, and the 
> other administrative IT is generally at the same level.

Mmm, OK.

> For some things, no commercial vendor makes it.  For these items, the 
> military has to contract out the manufacturing process, and generally 
> the design as well.  Proprietary designs abound.  Quantities are limited 
> (only items that are ubiquitous and in heavy use get more than a few 
> thousand made), so margins are high.  The design process takes so long 
> that the equipment, when finally fielded, can be a decade behind the 
> commercial world.
> 
> When I first entered the service (in 1984), a certain piece of 
> cryptographic equipment, which used vacuum tubes to generate its timing 
> signals, and magnetic core logic to generate the right ones and zeros, 
> was then nearing the end of its service life (I saw it in use until 
> 1988).  It took up an entire equipment rack (six feet tall, nineteen 
> inches wide).  All it did was encrypt/decrypt digital data at a rate 
> measurable in kilohertz at the very fastest, but in the 1950's when it 
> first saw service, it was considered more than adequate.

Weeee... and *this* is why I'm not sure I want to work on military 
crypto devices. :-}

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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