core

[Pizzazz]

Hi Gang


Here is a real piece of history; a shot of CORE memory. Yes, long before
semiconductor RAM, ferrite rings were used.

One's and zero's baby, one's and zero's.




Mike

[Pau]

Nice!!
So the black things are ferrite rings...I still recall a first lecture on computers about 44 years ago

[Smokedaddy]

Excellent pic, bit filpping. <g>

[Pizzazz]

It is amazing how our technology has grown in the past 40 years

Just think how they got this array to even work as memory

This was just one panel that was made into basically a box and all them were wired together

I gave this one to a friend and asked to borrow it so I can photograph it as I do not have anymore

[rjlittlefield]

It is amazing how our technology has grown in the past 40 years

Indeed!

When I was teaching a math class a few years ago, I wrote up a handout that went like this:

The above picture shows representative units of computer memory from 1968 and 2007.

In 1968, magnetic core technology yielded a memory module of 6 KB (yes, 6 thousand bytes) using 5 pounds of material.

In 2007, compact flash silicon technology yielded a memory module of 1 GB (one billion bytes) using 1.6 grams of material.

In terms of memory density (bytes per gram), this represents an improvement of a factor of roughly 2.5x10^8 (250 million).

Assuming that the improvement was exponential, what was the rate?

The rate calculates out to be 64% per year, doubling every 1.40 years.

Unfortunately that module is constructed so that I have never been willing to dismantle it far enough to photograph. The planes of ferrite cores are sandwiched between circuit boards that have many soldered connections holding them in place.

The intact module did make a great classroom prop, though! <insert pumping-iron animated image here >

--Rik

[ChrisR]

The technology rate continued, somewhat faster, but the price flattened and rose. http://www.statisticbrain.com/average-h ... ce-of-ram/
Last summer I bought 128GB Micro SD cards for $30, but they've been going higher since.

I suspect the trend may look different at data-centre level.

[Grahame]

512 GB is the largest SD card at present.
Somewhere around the 300$ US mark.
Will be interesting to see what 2027 brings.
Chicken scribbles on a rock ?

[Olympusman]

The systems in the early space shuttles used core memory. From what I have read, thery would load it for the takeoff sequence and then replace that software with other software for operations during the flight and re-entry.
Sounds pretty hairy.

Mike