Magnetic core memory

Like Magnetic_drum_memory, magnetic core memory was faster and more reliable than delay_line_memory and vacuum-tubes, and was also persistent. Thus it was used for volatile memory as well as storage.

It worked as follows. Magnetic beads made of ferrite and threaded with copper were arranged in a crisscross grid. A bead would be placed at the overlap of two copper threads. This constitutes a “core”.A pulse of electric current would magnetise/de-magnetise the cores.