Photo of CSE's Cray X-MP/11

The photo above shows the Cray X-MP/11 (later upgraded to X-MP/14) supercomputer that CSE operated from 1985 to 1995. 

The X-MP/11 was CSE's first supercomputer, purchased as part of a concerted effort to revitalize the agency's limited cryptanalytic capabilities. 

By its own estimation, CSE now has "the largest concentration of supercomputers in Canada," but prior to the purchase of the X-MP/11, the computer resources available for cryptanalysis at CSE were mostly limited to PDP-8 and -11 minicomputers and occasional use of an IBM mainframe. 

I wrote about CSE's acquisition of this computer more than thirty years ago. As you can see, many details of the computer and its purchase and subsequent upgrades were known even back then. 

But no photos of the machine seemed to be available. The best that I could find in recent years were some pictures of circuit boards from the computer (along with some from a Cray-1S originally owned by Environment Canada) that are now held in the collection of Ingenium, the organization that runs the Museum of Science and Technology.

Instead, you had to make do with the schematic diagram on the right, which I obtained through the Access to Information Act and included in my 1992 article.

As it turns out, however, there has been a photo of the X-MP/11 circulating in the wild since 2018. That's when CSE partnered with Ingenium to create Cipher | Decipher, an "interactive exhibition exploring the past and present of communications cryptology."

The exhibition has been travelling around Canada ever since. It is currently on show in Strathroy, Ontario, near London, and last month I made a special trip to check it out. As CSE notes, the exhibition is "specifically designed for school-age children," using puzzles and interactive displays to spark interest in cryptology and the cyber security field more generally. But it also makes an interesting half-hour or so visit for adults.

And, for me at least, one of the most interesting and unexpected aspects was that one of the displays contained a photo of the never-before-seen X-MP/11. 

(Who would have guessed it was decorated in the colours of a 1970s kitchen appliance?)

The caption accompanying the photo was also pretty interesting:

In the 1980s, the CSE acquired this computer to exploit encrypted communications. In the later years of the Cold War, Canada and its allies analyzed Soviet ciphers with advanced computer systems. These systems were able to test possible keys, looking for the one that would unlock the cipher.

There is good reason to suspect that CSE's Cray was also used for non-Soviet targets. 

But it's no surprise that the display doesn't talk about that. Given CSE's track record on transparency, I'm actually a bit surprised they were willing to (more or less) confirm the X-MP/11's use against Soviet targets.