Not a proof in entirety of the claim, but from a ref and looking at the closeup pics from the auction website, it is an unusual form of core memory where the cores have two holes through them, like a blocky figure 8, apparently an aspect of a technique to achieve non-destructive readout. This is quite unusual and would go some ways to showing a provenance to the Gemini project. On 2015-Oct-28, at 2:45 PM, Geoffrey Oltmans wrote:

On 2015-Oct-28, at 4:41 PM, Paul Koning wrote: No, it doesn't, without more research (that's why I qualified the observation with "not a proof in entirety"). I'm just noting: - A source describes this type of memory as being used in the Gemini computer. - It's a very unusual form of core memory - I had never heard of it before either - so there's not a lot of other equipment for it to have come from. The techique may even only ever have been used in Gemini. - The matrix size of 4096 is consistent with that described for Gemini, although that is a common matrix size.

On 2015-Oct-28, at 6:35 PM, Jon Elson wrote: Very interesting to hear of another scheme, but it's not clear whether it applies to the Gemini auction memory. The BiAX scheme shows cores with the holes (apertures as they're called in the business) perpendicular to each other. In contrast, the Gemini auction cores have two apertures with the same orientation (a figure 8). This abstract http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1961P%26SS....7..184W describes BiAX in distinction to "other multi-aperture" techniques, so the Gemini auction memory is not necessarily BiAX. - Another topic: what is a Honeywell Alert machine? Searches are just bringing up some current-day "Honeywell Instant Alert" messaging system.

On 2015-Oct-29, at 10:22 AM, Jon Elson wrote: At a general level, as you suggest, they could be said to be related, however what description is out there does seem to indicate them being distinct in the detail. Refs on this page: http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/Gemini.html refers to the Gemini memory as being of the MARS type "Multi-Aperture Readout Sensing". MARS is described here if one wishes to delve into the magnetics: http://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/afips/1961/5058/00/50580443.pdf A cursory description of BiAX http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Biax does describe different functional principles as suggested in one sentence here: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1961P%26SS....7..184W Photos of the Gemini auction memory: http://historical.ha.com/itm/explorers/gemini-3-flown-random-access-non-des… See the third photo for detail. . . and a photo of BiAX cores: http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/memory-storage/8/253/984 While researching this I ran across a couple of other patents for multi-aperture techniques. A fair effort seems to have been put into developing a non-desctructive readout for core memory, to little effect in the marketplace. Looking at the photos one can see why, it looks like the methods doubled or better the complexity of construction, so the 'standard' core memory techniques remained the most cost-effective. Amusingly, there was also a magnetic core device called a "transfluxor". Take that, flux capacitor. I like this one however, another technique for NDRO, using standard core construction, from the 50s: http://www-isl.stanford.edu/~widrow/papers/j1954aradio.pdf The magnetised core acts as a non-linear mixing element for two RF signals sent down the matrix wires. The magnetic polarisation of the selected core affects the mixing in such a manner that the phase of the difference/beat frequency can be observed to determine the polarisation and hence the stored-bit contents.

On 10/31/2015 01:40 AM, Brent Hilpert wrote: it is not gone. I have a VERY strong belief that the EMM memory box was made for the Honeywell Alert, but I have no docs on it, and one of the 4 memory blocks was disassembled, probably to attempt a repair on the electronics. Without pinout or even knowing what voltages were used, pretty hard to do much with it. Yes, I could build an SRAM board that would hook to it, and a console interface, but I really don't see the point. Jon

Yes, I was wondering that too. The paper sticker pasted on the array as show in the photo is hardly persuasive. paul