19 Apr
2019
19 Apr
'19
4:46 a.m.
From: Curious Marc
I believe 3 wire memory was first introduced by IBM in
their 360
systems ... They would almost certainly have patented their way to do it
Correct (and your knowledge and memory is good)! Motivated by this clue, I
looked in:
Emerson W. Pugh, "Memories That Shaped an Industry"
MIT Press, Cambridge, 1984
where the description of the invention of 3-wire core can be found on pg.
231; it was invented by a group of engineers, based on a similar idea used in
Stretch. There is indeed a patent, No. 3,381,282, with six names on it. IBM
must have licensed it, but there is nothing on that.
I can highly recommend that book; it's in the same league as the later two
books on early IBM computers from MIT Press on which he was a co-author.
Noel
PS: There was recent discussion here of the 8000 series; there are some
details on that on pp. 189-191.