> Very interesting looking.  I can't quite make out what is going on in that 
> rectangular area where all the wires terminate, labeled 0-15 and A-R.  Are 
> there diodes there?  Anything on the other side of that board?

Nothing but traces on the other side, though you’re right on them being diodes.

> The large cores with all the wires are remisniscent of core rope ROM.   If 
> so, I wonder if it's AGC (Lincoln Labs) style, EL-X1 style, or a scheme 
> different from either of those two.

It’s definitely some form of core rope ROM. 

Interestingly, the ferrite rings are built in pairs, with a "selection" coil 
wrapped around both, joining them. Therefore (i assume, i’m really no expert) 
they’ll be a positive pulse induced when passing through one coil, but a 
negative pulse when passed through the opposite coil. This probably helps in 
differentiating beween a 0, a 1, or a NULL state (ie 0v). 

I have no idea if that correlates with any particular format of Core Rope, but 
as far as my eyes can tell, that’  how the core rope is woven and functions.

I think, though again i’m no expert, that the termination points indicate that 
this read off a 16 bit word in parallel, instead of working in serial to build 
up a word. Therefore, it contains 16 (pairs of termination points) x 64 (pairs 
of “selection” rings) = 1 kiloword of storage. I may however, to quote Bob 
Geldof, be talking bollocks.

Josh Rice

Reply via email to