Blog 7 - History of Memory

Computer memory started out as mechanical. There where sliding metal parts and the now famous punch cards. Back in 1948, electronic memory started with the Williams tube. This used electron beams, vacuum tubes, and phosphor to store up to a whopping 1 Kb of memory. Around the same time there was the Selectron tube which in some cases could store more data, was more reliable and faster than the Willams tube but was complex and expensive to produce.

There were some odd forms of memory like Delay Lines which converted bits into mechanical vibrations and which were sent through a tank of mercury until it reached the other side. There the vibrations where changed back into bits. This was a refreshable form of memory.

In the 1950's core memory came out. This was a complex cross-hatch of wires and magnetic rings that would store information. When it came out is was very fast for its age with a cycle time of 6 microseconds and eventually reaching 1.2ms.

In the 1970's core memory was taken over by transistors. Scientists first started messing with transistors in 1948 but it took quite a few years before they could overcome the core memory.

Although DRAM chips had been around for awhile, in 1970 Intel came out with the first commercial DRAM chip, model 1103. This eventually led to the home computer. Which eventually built up to the technology we have today.