Magnetic-core memory
Memoria de núcleos de ferrita
- Date
- 1951 · confidence medium
- Place
- MIT (Project Whirlwind), Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- Credited to
- Jay Forrester (MIT); An Wang (Harvard); Frederick Viehe
- People
- 👤 An Wang1920–1990👤 Jay Wright Forrester1918–2016
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Array of ferrite rings that stores bits by magnetisation, with random access, non-volatile and reliable. It was the main memory of computers between 1955 and 1975.
An Wang patented the core-switching principle in 1949; Forrester developed the coincident-current matrix arrangement.
What it led to
- Reliable computers for air defence (SAGE) and Apollo missions
- Memory as a component separate from the processor
- The memory industry that later migrated to semiconductors
Built on
- Ferrite1930
- ceramic ferrites
- Williams tube
- mercury delay line