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144 Bit Bakelite Core Memory - perfect A1+ Condition

Steve Tinter

Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2012
Messages
10
I want to sell this - serious offers by PM please. 12 x 12 bit (144 bits in total) on Bakelite frame. No cores missing, no broken wires and in A1+ condition

12 bits side would date it to early 1960's or judging by the size maybe even late 1950's is my guess.

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Very interesting, Steve! 5-wire cores yet. I wonder if this is for a computer at all. Core was used in jukeboxes and calculators. Even the 650 and 701 had more (optional) core than this would indicate.
 
Where do you happen to be located Steve? Although this small isn't going to be as big of a shipping issue but it'd help folks know if it's feasible or if you're in the same country, etc. Um...I'm confused. Are you also here with a different name and from Hong Kong? and some other name on ebay?
 
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hi - I am in Hong Kong although I am British - this would cost less than 10 bucks to mail anywhere worldwide by registered airmail.
 
Very interesting, Steve! 5-wire cores yet. I wonder if this is for a computer at all. Core was used in jukeboxes and calculators. Even the 650 and 701 had more (optional) core than this would indicate.

I contacted the guy I bought it from again - he said it came in a stack of 8 cores in a chassis so that would rule out calculator I am guessing
 
I contacted the guy I bought it from again - he said it came in a stack of 8 cores in a chassis so that would rule out calculator I am guessing

Most likely, this is from a printer, card reader/punch or other piece of unit record equipment. Much too small for even a machine as old as an IBM 650.
 
Most likely, this is from a printer, card reader/punch or other piece of unit record equipment. Much too small for even a machine as old as an IBM 650.
Yeah, it is pretty small; wonder what it is out of. I've got a core plane from a key-to-tape unit that's four times the size, and a desktop calculator core that's not much smaller than this one. 144 'bytes' could still be a calculator, or as Chuck suggests, a buffer for a peripheral of some kind.

Interesting that there are so many wires; looks like four horizontal and two vertical, plus the sense. Any clue in that?
 
Interesting that there are so many wires; looks like four horizontal and two vertical, plus the sense. Any clue in that?

Probably "quarter-select" mode of access, which cuts down on the amount of decoding logic; i.e. for coincidence to occur, all 4 wires must be energized. A clue that this was not intended as a high-speed device.

But it's even too small for a train printer--the 1403 has 240 character positions on its train. Perhaps a keypunch.
 
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