13 Mar
2021
13 Mar
'21
10:34 a.m.
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