Happy Patent Day: Magnetic Core Memory Ram, May 11, 1951

Does hand woven memory sound too poetic to be true? On the occasion of MIT’s 1951 Project Whirlwind‘s electrostatic storage medium the Magnetic Core Memory (RAM), advances in phase change and nonvolatile memory tech made possible by Chua’s memristor mathematics really highlights the almost half century of distance from the earliest model of a memory matrix. It also provides for some somber moments of reflection: the Edison Tech Center has a great video of Bernard Widrow, (who himself demonstrated the viability of a non solid state, three terminal memristor via electroplating in the 60’s, and the LMS algorithm, and the ADALINE neural network, and the…) discussing part of Professor Jay W. Forrester’s US Navy sponsored Project Whirlwind, and the origins of the invention of the first woven magnetic core memory:

For extra credit, who is this mysterious “Hilda” who wove these first memory planes? Credit where credit is due, please : )