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IWETHEY Home / IWETHEY Board / Patent Wars and Antitrust Forum / Question about core memory.
Post #33,225
by static
3/23/02 4:27:03 AM
Reply
New Question about core memory.
Just how physically big was a single ferrite core in core memory? A few cm? Or less than a mm? Or were there several sizes?

Wade, who has never seen real core memory.

"All around me are nothing but fakes
Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #33,229
by dmarker2
3/23/02 6:44:19 AM
Reply
New Re: Question about core memory. - My memory of core :-)

This was invented by An Wang (later of WANG fame)

There were several (3?) different sizes for the cores. 1400 family (IBM) had one size - System/360 had at least 2 sizes.

The smallest I recall were so small we needed fine pointed tweezers to pick one up. These had to be about 0.5 mm

Alex can you add any info ?

Doug
Post #33,242
by Ashton
3/23/02 2:02:01 PM
Reply
New Now imagine threading R/W wires x-turns, through EACH one..
Post #33,263
by a6l6e6x
Picture of a6l6e6x
3/23/02 8:24:14 PM
Reply
New Re: core memory.
The [link|http://www.science.uva.nl/faculteit/museum/CoreMemory.html|Core memory] I remember seeing used cores about 2 mm outside diameter. I'm sure some were much smaller.

I also remember seeing some made of a ceramic bobbin with a metal tape wound on it. These were quite large ~5 mm and used to perform logic functions. These I saw during a summer job with Burroughs (which later merged with Sperry Rand) to form Unisys.
Alex
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think." -- Neils Bohr (1885-1962)
Post #33,309
by static
3/24/02 9:23:26 PM
Reply
New Ah...
I have a hazy memory of a work colleague showing me an exposed minature core-memory in the late '80s. It all makes sense now.

Wade.

"All around me are nothing but fakes
Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
     MS used to develop in... vi?? - (admin) - (34) - March 20, 2002, 10:59:05 AM EST
         Explains it all. - (pwhysall) - March 20, 2002, 11:19:35 AM EST
         Xenix was a great product! - (boxley) - March 20, 2002, 12:09:16 PM EST
         More revisionist history from the masters - (jb4) - (7) - March 20, 2002, 01:07:45 PM EST
             Another BG line - (dlevitt) - (6) - March 20, 2002, 01:24:18 PM EST
                 Remeber NT3.5.1 was a pretty decent product - (boxley) - (4) - March 20, 2002, 01:44:50 PM EST
                     Box, you (of all people) shoulda known... - (jb4) - (3) - March 21, 2002, 08:59:06 AM EST
                         Y'know.. even us non- codemonkeys - (Ashton) - (1) - March 21, 2002, 04:29:56 PM EST
                             Don't you mean its earlier cousin, the UAE? -NT - (wharris2) - March 21, 2002, 06:48:43 PM EST
                         thats when I bailed -NT - (boxley) - March 26, 2002, 12:48:23 PM EST
                 A truly Stupefying line from the little twit hisself: - (Ashton) - March 20, 2002, 08:24:16 PM EST
         IBM did have the AIX product for PCs. - (a6l6e6x) - (22) - March 20, 2002, 04:40:16 PM EST
             Jives perfectly with IBM, AIX that is. - (wharris2) - (21) - March 20, 2002, 06:01:22 PM EST
                 Re: AIX Odd ???? - (dmarker2) - (17) - March 20, 2002, 09:09:38 PM EST
                     Odd, yes - (wharris2) - (3) - March 20, 2002, 06:50:39 PM EST
                         Re: If thread is on idiosyncracies - (dmarker2) - (1) - March 20, 2002, 10:39:35 PM EST
                             Re: If thread is on idiosyncracies - (wharris2) - March 20, 2002, 11:52:27 PM EST
                         Re: Odd, yes... But Right!!! - (folkert) - March 24, 2002, 08:53:23 PM EST
                     Doug, I was an engineer on IBM S/360/67. - (a6l6e6x) - (12) - March 20, 2002, 10:31:15 PM EST
                         Re: Doug, I was an engineer on IBM S/360/67. - (dmarker2) - (11) - March 20, 2002, 10:58:58 PM EST
                             Exciting times indeed! Read this BOX. - (a6l6e6x) - (10) - March 21, 2002, 12:54:31 AM EST
                                 Re: Exciting times indeed! - (dmarker2) - (8) - March 22, 2002, 04:37:19 AM EST
                                     It is amazing you still have the tools. - (a6l6e6x) - (7) - March 21, 2002, 11:00:42 PM EST
                                         Re: You are dead right about replacing cores - (dmarker2) - (6) - March 22, 2002, 04:34:08 AM EST
                                             Yep, I hear about that Suggestion Award. -NT - (a6l6e6x) - March 22, 2002, 12:05:52 PM EST
                                             Question about core memory. - (static) - (4) - March 23, 2002, 04:27:03 AM EST
                                                 Re: Question about core memory. - My memory of core :-) - (dmarker2) - (3) - March 23, 2002, 06:44:19 AM EST
                                                     Now imagine threading R/W wires x-turns, through EACH one.. -NT - (Ashton) - March 23, 2002, 02:02:01 PM EST
                                                     Re: core memory. - (a6l6e6x) - March 23, 2002, 08:24:14 PM EST
                                                     Ah... - (static) - March 24, 2002, 09:23:26 PM EST
                                 hey you could do big/little I(E)ndian that way! -NT - (boxley) - March 26, 2002, 12:52:59 PM EST
                 AIX - doesn't that stand for . . . - (Andrew Grygus) - (2) - March 20, 2002, 11:33:58 PM EST
                     Re: Anti-AIX - lot of emotion at the time but... - (dmarker2) - (1) - March 21, 2002, 05:36:10 AM EST
                         I retired one of those Zylog Zues boxes . . - (Andrew Grygus) - March 21, 2002, 11:03:36 AM EST
         Told this to my UNIX admin students - (tjsinclair) - March 21, 2002, 01:37:11 AM EST

Whatever, it runs fine for now.
101 ms