Up for Auction: Memory from the First Computer in Space

[Brent Hilpert]

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:
> Seems like it's worth is totally dependent on its provenance...how do you
> prove that?
> 
> On Wed, Oct 28, 2015 at 2:31 PM, Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
>>> On Oct 28, 2015, at 12:58 PM, feldman.r at comcast.net wrote:
>>> 
>>> A core memory unit from Gemini 3 is up for auction:
>> http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2015/10/auction-memory-first-computer-space?et_cid=4906629&et_rid=742193094&location=top
>> 
>> Comical.  "Chip" indeed.  And "first use of core memory ... in an era of
>> rotating drum memory" -- in 1965?  I wonder why they have such a clueless
>> person write their blurbs.
>> 
>>        paul