Lmst

64 bytes, more or less Something different for #MacroMonday, as you carry billions or trillions of bytes in your pockets, entire libraries and music catalogues... #CoreMemory, 1 core=1 bit. (DEC PDP-11 H214 8kx19 detail) #photography #history #technology #IT #EastCoastKin #PhotographersUnited

Macro closeup of the corner of a core memory card from a 1970s computer, before semiconductor memory became available. The shot shows hundreds of tiny ferrite cores, doughnut-shaped, in a dense matrix, each core threaded onto three very fine wires that extend out past the edge of the picture. There are slightly more than 64 by 8 cores in shot, or not enough bits to store this sentence.

MUDs and the ability to reload new server without dropping connections (a “hotboot”)…

https://boston.conman.org/2025/02/11.2

…reminded me of an old RSX-11M application from an aeon ago, running part of a state government.

The app was too big for the PDP-11 (a common problem, as 32KW wasn't all that much even then), so the app removed the operating system from the computer, and ran, well, standalone.

Yes, you could do that back then.

That all worked swimmingly until somebody pressed ^C control-C on their terminal session, and the terminal driver then trapped into, well, nothingness.

Since the app code was too big for the PDP-11 it was running on, that smaller PDP-11 was shut down, the bigger local PDP-11 was switched over and re-booted and the app code loaded, and the bigger PDP-11 was then powered down.

The operator then pulled the core memory out of the bigger PDP-11, walked it over to the smaller PDP-11 and plugged it into the backplane, toggled in the address of the app's main loop onto the front panel switches, and toggled “go”, and off the smaller PDP-11 went running its too-big app.

Yeah, you could do a simple form of app checkpoint-restart with core memory, given core was persistent. And yeah, a bigger PDP-11 would have been helpful.

(Yes, SC was a creative administrator of those PDP-11 boxes. Swapping core never would have occurred to me.)

#digitalequipment #retrocomputing #pdp11 #corememory

@mavica_again @cstross @NF6X also lets be clear, @NanoRaptor does "Premium" #Shitpost|s or rather "#NextLevel #Memes" to the point that I'd not be surprised if she makes a #NeoFloppy / #Jaz / #Zip mashup and showcases a nonexistant "vintage" portable SSD with like old #ROM chips or #RAM chips...

I mean, the only reason #ODD's and #HDD's ever got built is because #CoreMemory and other storage couldn't scale up faster.

But #WhatIf it did?

plays Vsauce music

No collection is complete without a core memory module. In my case from a Saratov-2 computer manufactured in the USSR.

The individual rings are smaller than the head of a pin, amazing!

As soon as I have a macro lens for my camera, I will take new photos. Additionally I'll add something for scale...

For more information:
https://rusue.com/cemetery-of-soviet-computers/
https://www.curiousmarc.com/computing/core-memory

#retrocomputing #computerhistory #corememory

"Saratov-2" Ferrite Core Memory plate - other angle

"Saratov-2" Ferrite Core Memory plate - zoomed

"Saratov-2" Ferrite Core Memory plate - top down view

A Nibble Of Core Memory, In An SAO https://hackaday.com/2024/09/03/a-nibble-of-core-memory-in-an-sao/ #computerhacks #magneticcore #corememory #nibble #sao

Repórter Retro 105

https://retropolis.com.br/2024/07/31/reporter-retro-105/

#ReprterRetro #68000 #68010 #8BitShowAndTell #86Box #AdrianBlack #Apple1 #Arcade #Arduino #AtariPortfolio #backplane #BitnamicSoftware #Coco3 #CommodorePlus4 #Computerland #CoreMemory #CP500 #DidSomebodySayRetro #Emuladores #EPROM #FreeDOS #GameBoy #Intel80286 #Intel8088 #LaCoCoStrangiato #LGR #MarcusGarrett #microsoft #MSDOS #MSXTurboR #Odyssey #Oric #Oric1 #Plexus #RetroRelix #RetroRio #RioRetroGames #RMC #SAMCou

19 years ago today we rounded up 4 TVs, 4 OG Xboxes, a 4 port switch, and 14 friends for some #halo deathmatch. Trash-talking across the room is so much better than over a mic! Still probably the best party I’ve ever been to

#lanparty #nostalgia #xbox #corememory

In 1972, #core #memory was manufactured in #Dublin by the Irish subsidiary of US-headquartered Dataproducts, trading as "Data Products/Core Memories Ltd."

They made what they claimed was "...the world’s largest core stack, 131K x 80". Judging by the info in the caption, the latter number is the number of bits per word, so in eight-bit bytes, that's 1,310 kilobytes.

I can't imagine that business survived more than a couple more years. Soon the semiconductor manufacturers had set up shop in Ireland.

#vintage #computer #hardware #history #CoreMemory #OtherGeographies #Ireland

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dataproducts

A photo of a page from a 1972 electronics and automation trade exhibition, held in London. A black and white photo of a 4K x 18 bit mini planar 18 mil core is shown.

The accompanying text reads:

DATA PRODUCTS/
CORE MEMORIES LTD.
Greencastle Road
Coolock

Dublin 5

Ireland

Telephone Dublin 311666
Telex 5183

This company specializes in the field of ferrite core memories. The factory covers 43,000 sq. ft. and is convenient to Dublin International Airport.

The company is constantly striving to exceed to-day’s accepted standards for operational characteristics and mechanical strength. Standard arrays and stacks are available for coincident operation for 30 mil., 22 mil and 18 mil and 14 mil cores.

CORES

Data Products ferrite cores made by the roll/cut process have greater uniformity of electrical and mechanical characteristics than cores made by the conventional powder press method. The result is precise control of core geometry and density. This in turn results in tighter distribution of electrical properties and a more consistent yield. The advantages of this process are even more amplified in making smaller and faster cores. Production cores are available in a wide range of sizes — 14-mil to 30-mil — and speeds — 110 to 395 nanoseconds.

STACKS

Data Products is a leader in the design and production of core stacks. New manufacturing techniques developed by Data Products produce more reliable core stacks with consistent electrical characteristics. Core-bonding methods...

The front cover of the brochure, showing a very trippy 1970s interpretation of elements from a circuit diagram. The brochure design is by Cor Klaasen.

@futurebird you're doing classic #CoreMemory?

NOICE!

Here is a link (cued to the time where it starts) of the best and most clear explanation of how core memory works. Reading & writing a bit has many steps!

Now I want to know how modern memory works with a similar level of detail.

I always felt there was something poetic about how one must destroy this kind of memory in order to read it. Observation is never passive... to observe a system is to change it... #computer #memory #history #coreMemory #cs

https://youtu.be/AwsInQLmjXc?list=TLPQMTcxMjIwMjPAV2NFeK1Otg&t=160

Saving Apollo by Decoding Core Rope https://hackaday.com/2023/11/04/saving-apollo-by-decoding-core-rope/ #ApolloGuidanceComputer #Retrocomputing #Coreropememory #corememory #History #agc

@ana Wow, that page is super detailed. I remember reading about core memory in this IEEE Spectrum article: https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-vacuum-tubes-forgotten-rival

#IEEESpectrum #CoreMemory

@billgoats

When I was in college here in Brazil, in the 1970s, I was told that US computer makers shipped the mag donuts to their BR subsidiary, where armies of women would thread them into core memories, peering through microscopes. Which would be exported back to the US, then imported again as computer parts.

I was also told that the women would have to change glasses several times in a few months, and then would be fired.

But it may have been just nationalist propaganda.

#CoreMemory

GLASNOST is a Computer That Makes Transparency A Priority https://hackaday.com/2023/07/17/glasnost-is-a-computer-that-makes-transparency-a-priority/ #computerhacks #corememory #vacuumtube #computer #glasnost #soviet #logic #gate

Wer schon immer mal Magnetkernspeicher selber fädeln wollte: Bittesehr, CoreKit64 existiert. 64 allerfeinste Kernspeicherbits. https://www.core64.io #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #corememory

Happy with how my mounting / framing of this core memory module turned-out.
Beautiful as a historical display piece, and I wouldn't mind trying to connect it to an Arduino some day. Addressing memory to read/write one bit of data at a time looks simple but also cumbersome at the same time.

#RetroComputing #CoreMemory #Arduino

A core memory module. Size is approximately 140 X 140 mm. These are made to be stacked into a cube approximately 140 mm to a side. On this module, a grid of very fine copper wires is woven on a frame. The frame appears to be brown coloured Bakelite with soldering terminals embedded along all four sides. The strands of copper wire are as fine as a human hair. Where each copper wire crosses at a right angle, they pass through a tiny toroidal magnet. To write one bit of data, the computer applies a voltage to a specific pair of wires in a row and column. The electrical current creates a magnetic field around the wire, and the direction of the magnetic field is determined by the polarity of the current. This magnetic field gets stored in the magnet at the intersection of the wires, along with its direction. Thus, the direction of the magnetic field encodes a '0' or '1' datum in memory.

A trip down memory lane...

WARNING - severe geekiness ahead.

Not my favourite core plane, that would be a 4k x 12 from a PDP/8L, but I don't have that one, alas. You could *see* the cores on that one.

8k (16 bit plus parity) memory from a PDP-11 (H214).

#photography #macro #computers #hardware #memory #CoreMemory #ferrite #pdp11

Extreme macro closeup of the ferrite cores in the core memory from a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11 computer. Each core represents one bit of memory, and it's a tiny metal donut through which are threaded three fine wires. The picture is of the edge of the array, with about 600 cores in a roughly six millimeter by eight millimeter view. Also shown are the copper wires leading out from the array.

Front view of an 8k memory board from a PDP11 computer. Most of the board is taken up by the cores, which from this distance are individually indistinguishable, and just form brown rectangles. Protecting the cores is a perspex sheet, on which are two stickers reading "Warranty void if broken". The stickers are unbroken, but the warranty's probably void anyway. Surrounding them are a number of old-style black plastic "caterpillar" 14 pin LSI chips. Across the top of the board are four plastic handles for insertion and removal, and across the bottom are four groups of gold-plated contacts for insertion into the computer's Unibus, or communication bus.

Back view of an 8k memory board from a PDP11 computer. It is covered in circuit traces, but no components. On it is a metal sticker identifying the part, an H214, as well as various other arcane numbers.

And you might ask yourself "What if this is heaven?"

https://hainbach.bandcamp.com/album/core-memory

#Hainbach
#coreMemory
#electronicmusic
#musodon

@LotSixteen yup, called it that too. Mind you, loading programs from a cassette tape was better than loading a stack of optical cards…
#TRS80 #Wang2200 #CoreMemory

#corememory

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