The HX-63 was an advanced rotor machine designed by Crypto AG founder Boris Hagelin. Development of the device started in 1952 and lasted a decade. The machine had nine rotors, each with 41 contacts. There were 26 keyboard inputs and outputs, leaving 15 wires to "loop back" through the rotors via a different path. Moreover, each rotor wire could be selected from one of two paths. The movement of the rotors was irregular and controlled by switches. There were two plugboards with the machine; one to scramble the input, and one for the loop-back wires. The machine also used a technique called reinjection (also called reentry), which increased its security exponentially. The machine could be set up in around 10<sup>600</sup> different configurations.
See also
- KL-7
References
External links
- Jerry Proc's pages — photographs and a brief description
- Notice of a past eBay auction of an HX-63
- John Savard's discussion on the machine
Further reading
- Cipher A. Deavours and Louis Kruh, "Machine Cryptography and Modern Cryptanalysis", Artech House, 1985, p199.