Interesting that the power plate indicates 60 Hz supply - yet the UK is 50 Hz. Perhaps stretching things for the title to claim it's "from" the BBC, as opposed to "as used by" - this one was most likely was made for the US market. I wonder what its provenance was?
I wonder if it is radioactive. :-) There was a brief flurry of selling various rare Russian military parts that had been scavenged from equipment that had been left behind in the towns around Chernobyl.
Probably not, and it is a fun artifact. I've got a number of PDP-8 core memories (actually in PDP-8's :-) which are much less rare. That said, if you're looking for a parent/child project, or just a fun project, you can make a bit of "core memory" out of a #2 iron nut, a couple of full bridges, and an opamp. We did this with the kids for a science project once and its a lot of fun. You get to learn about hysteresis, the inherent 'analog' nature of digital machines, and with careful planning you could impractically hide information in the spare nuts drawer in the garage :-).
Usually the military components would have "ВП" stamp ("Военная приемка" - "accepted by military QA") - at least that was the case with electronic components from torpedo and cruise missiles at the navy base hardware dump that we sourced our hobby electronics components from in the childhood, and this doesn't seem to have it :
Typical usage was to pack 3 6-bit characters into a word on these machines if you weren't simply using it as integer data. So it's "really" something closer to 12k of text or (assuming all the computations fit in the different word sizes) 16k of integer/pointer data.
The Mig-25 was fairly famous for using vacuum tubes - initially this was seen as rather funny in the West then people realised that they actually had some distinct advantages, including alleged resiliance to the EMP from nuclear explosions:
It is clearly a beautiful design - and the workmanship is incredible as well. I can't imagine how long it must have taken to build just one of those things. It reminds me of the workings of a fine mechanical watch.
That said, I think it's grossly overpriced. Probably worth about $800-$1k (based on it's similarity to classic mechanical watches).
Yep, there's huge demand for certain NOS (new old stock) tubes used in tube microphones (like the Neumann U47, U67 etc). I think one of the big factories has just opened up again actually.
I suspect it's just the standard (for the time) term in Russian for what would be called a deployment manual and/or service manual in English. I've worked with old French documents titled "Manuel d'exploitation" that are essentially how to make the device/software work in production (installation/in use/maintenance).
This artifact belongs in the hands of someone who can answer that question for himself. I know he's not me; I would waste its potential by enclosing it in a Plexiglas cube and displaying it on my desk. "Look at this curiosity! No, please don't touch it."
it is just ferrittes strung on copper wire lattice, no component to "break" until it is really physically broken.
What i've been wondering for many years about is why such schema wasn't miniaturized? We have disk plates with high density in HDDs, and the magnetic head is physically moving. Imagine if instead of the magnetic head there would be a [miniaturized] lattice similar in principle to the one on this image http://sovietsouvenirs.com/catalog/images/ic/core_memory-15-.... The similar principle is used in flash memory, yet in the flash memory it is electrons trapped in the floating gate instead of magnetic domains with all the problems (durability, sustained write speed) of flash vs. magnetic disks.
I remember IBM 360 "large core storage" devices at the Naval Electronics Lab on Point Loma (San Diego, where I worked as a high school student)--boxes that held a MEGABYTE of core (I think several milliseconds per byte access, so more like a fast DASD), which cost a MILLION dollars. ($1/byte)
We systems programmers thought we were in hog heaven, since most 360 mainframes of the day (1971) had 32KB or 64KB main memories. (Yes, KB.)
Judging by the time it was made it was at least intended to be used in a hostile environment. By 1983 the days of core memory were long gone so any application involving ferrite would have to be special to justify the additional cost over using semiconductor ram.
I would love to buy this and interface to it via the GPIO pins of the Raspberry Pi.
Perhaps the Pi could even piggyback onto the stack cube itself, and you could house it inside some kind of a glass container with inputs and output ports accessible from the outside.
It'd certainly be a conversation starter, and let's face it, who doesn't love core memory?
I had a heap of these at home as a kid, only they were slightly different in that they ferrite rings and the wires were encased in a gel to reduce mechanical strain (so likely a later design). Had I only known they would be selling for thousands of dollars...
My dad used to work on mainframes at IBM. When I was about seven years old he took me to work one day and showed me memory like this. Except he could open the door and you could look at a whole cabinet full of crisscrossed wires.
[+] [-] JonnieCache|12 years ago|reply
My birthday is soon. Email in profile.
[+] [-] jrabone|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacquesm|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|12 years ago|reply
Probably not, and it is a fun artifact. I've got a number of PDP-8 core memories (actually in PDP-8's :-) which are much less rare. That said, if you're looking for a parent/child project, or just a fun project, you can make a bit of "core memory" out of a #2 iron nut, a couple of full bridges, and an opamp. We did this with the kids for a science project once and its a lot of fun. You get to learn about hysteresis, the inherent 'analog' nature of digital machines, and with careful planning you could impractically hide information in the spare nuts drawer in the garage :-).
[+] [-] mhb|12 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1311.R...
[+] [-] VladRussian2|12 years ago|reply
http://www.ngpedia.ru/cgi-bin/getpage.exe?cn=61&uid=0.381138...
which points to "АСВТ-М" series of machines used in all areas of economics, government, education, and military as well.
http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/PHOTOS/M-6000_r.html
Usually the military components would have "ВП" stamp ("Военная приемка" - "accepted by military QA") - at least that was the case with electronic components from torpedo and cruise missiles at the navy base hardware dump that we sourced our hobby electronics components from in the childhood, and this doesn't seem to have it :
http://sovietsouvenirs.com/catalog/images/ic/core_memory-15-...
[+] [-] colanderman|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unwind|12 years ago|reply
9 kB would be 9,000 bytes, but this seems to be (4,096 * 18) / 8 = 9,216 bytes, which is exactly 9 KB.
Or maybe I'm just a hopeless old f*rt for caring about things like this, and the world needs to get off my lawn.
[+] [-] ajross|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ak217|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mhb|12 years ago|reply
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=ferri...
[+] [-] ck2|12 years ago|reply
Weren't the Russians making vacuum tubes for decades after the US stopped and "perfected" them?
[+] [-] arethuza|12 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25
[+] [-] javajosh|12 years ago|reply
That said, I think it's grossly overpriced. Probably worth about $800-$1k (based on it's similarity to classic mechanical watches).
[+] [-] tlrobinson|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] waterlesscloud|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] te_chris|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vsviridov|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 205guy|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hcarvalhoalves|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asciimo|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] VladRussian2|12 years ago|reply
What i've been wondering for many years about is why such schema wasn't miniaturized? We have disk plates with high density in HDDs, and the magnetic head is physically moving. Imagine if instead of the magnetic head there would be a [miniaturized] lattice similar in principle to the one on this image http://sovietsouvenirs.com/catalog/images/ic/core_memory-15-.... The similar principle is used in flash memory, yet in the flash memory it is electrons trapped in the floating gate instead of magnetic domains with all the problems (durability, sustained write speed) of flash vs. magnetic disks.
[+] [-] nsxwolf|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cjensen|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] troels|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cpr|12 years ago|reply
I remember IBM 360 "large core storage" devices at the Naval Electronics Lab on Point Loma (San Diego, where I worked as a high school student)--boxes that held a MEGABYTE of core (I think several milliseconds per byte access, so more like a fast DASD), which cost a MILLION dollars. ($1/byte)
We systems programmers thought we were in hog heaven, since most 360 mainframes of the day (1971) had 32KB or 64KB main memories. (Yes, KB.)
[+] [-] feritkan|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacquesm|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] __alexs|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] goatforce5|12 years ago|reply
http://www.chezfred.org.uk/University/ComputerXHistory/First...
He happened to be in the vicinity as it was being decommissioned. It's sometimes used as a doorstop.
[+] [-] sgt|12 years ago|reply
Perhaps the Pi could even piggyback onto the stack cube itself, and you could house it inside some kind of a glass container with inputs and output ports accessible from the outside.
It'd certainly be a conversation starter, and let's face it, who doesn't love core memory?
[+] [-] galaktor|12 years ago|reply
http://www.corememoryshield.com/
previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3888926
[+] [-] DenisM|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JoeAltmaier|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DennisP|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] themstheones|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nwh|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mindslight|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rdtsc|12 years ago|reply
Logical "1" - 20-60mV Logical "0" - 10mV (not more)