Up till now, we’ve decided on a basic PCB layout, designed the pipeline from custom PCB to arduino to FPGA and selected various appropriate transmission protocols. We decided on which modules would handle which tasks; PCB handling I/O, Arduino handles protocol translation and FPGA handles encryption and computation. We selected the Altera DE10 Standard Development board because we are most familiar with the board and its environment. We also worked on and submitted our proposal presentation. We finalised the existing system and pipeline with all major components researched (Arduino, FPGA, PCB).
A risk we were faced with was the uncertainty of ordering components / our PCB from China due to the current trade and economic landscape. The uncertainty stems from lead time, increased costs due to tariffs and potential halts to postal services from China. To mitigate this, we plan to look into risk/cost tradeoffs with local suppliers.
On Tuesday, we went on a field trip to see CMU’s very own Enigma machine. After asking a librarian at Hunt where the machine was located and coming up empty handed, we contacted Sam Lemley, the Curator of Special Collections at CMU Libraries. He informed us that both of CMU’s Enigma machines were currently on loan to the Heinz History Center, but one of the machines (the 3 rotor one) would be back at CMU this week. We met up with Sam this past Tuesday (2/4) and he gave us a hands-on demo and brief history on how CMU came to get possession of the machine. It was very exciting to see a real Enigma machine up close!
