> On May 2, 2024, at 8:45 PM, Paul Koning <[email protected]> wrote: > > Yes, it sure is. I was mistaken about it being the first issue. Instead, > the RSA article appears in Vol. 1 No. 3 (4Q80). Too bad the article itself > isn't included in the scanned material.
Ah, but it does show up elsewhere: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/ClassicDesigns/RSA/RSA.L4Q80.pdf <http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/ClassicDesigns/RSA/RSA.L4Q80.pdf> > > paul > >> On May 2, 2024, at 8:39 PM, Lee Courtney <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> >> Paul, >> >> Is this the Lambda/VLSI Design magazine you refer to: >> >> Lynn Conway's VLSI Archive: Main Links (umich.edu) >> <https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/VLSIarchive.mainlinks.html#VLSIDesMag> >> >> ? >> >> Thanks! >> >> Lee >> >> On Thu, May 2, 2024 at 1:00 PM Paul Koning <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> >> >> > On May 2, 2024, at 3:50 PM, Lee Courtney via cctalk <[email protected] >> > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> > >> > The first "professional software" I wrote (almost) out of University in >> > 1979 was a package to emulate the mainframe APL\Plus file primitives on a >> > CP/M APL variant. Used to facilitate porting of mainframe APL applications >> > to microcomputers. >> > >> > I'm still an APL adherent since the late 1960s, but it was probably too >> > heavy-weight, with obstacles noted elsewhere (character-set, radical >> > programming paradigm), to be successful in the early days of >> > microcomputing. Although the MCM-70 was an amazing feat of technology. >> > >> > Too bad because the language itself lends itself to learning by anyone with >> > an understanding of high school algebra. >> >> The one professional application APL I heard of was in a talk by Ron Rivest, >> at DEC around 1982 or so. He described a custom chip he had built, a bignum >> ALU (512 bits) to do RSA acceleration. The chip included a chunk of >> microcode, and he mentioned that the microcode store layout was done by an >> APL program about 500 lines long. That raised some eyebrows... >> >> Unless I lost it I still have the article somewhere: it's the cover story on >> the inaugural issue of "Lambda" which later became "VLSI Design", a >> technical journal about chip design. >> >> My own exposure to APL started around 1998, when I decoded to try to use it >> for writing cryptanalysis software. That was for a course in cryptanalysis >> taught by Alex Biryukov at Technion and offered to remote students. The >> particular exercise was solving an ADVFX cipher (see "The Code Breakers", >> the unabridged hardcover, not the useless paperback). It worked too, and it >> took less than 100 lines. >> >> paul >> >> >> >> >> -- >> Lee Courtney >> +1-650-704-3934 cell >
