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Whatever happened to "bubble memory"? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_memory

wk_end 3y ago
Your own link tells you! The introduction of dramatically faster semiconductor memory chips pushed bubble into the slow end of the scale, and equally dramatic improvements in hard-drive capacity made it uncompetitive in price terms.[1] Bubble memory was used for some time in the 1970s and 1980s in applications where its non-moving nature was desirable for maintenance or shock-proofing reasons. The introduction of flash storage and similar technologies rendered even this niche uncompetitive, and bubble disappeared entirely by the late 1980s.
- masspro 3y ago
  There was a Konami arcade cabinet that (tried to) use bubble memory! It was considered a failure. Also from Wikipedia[0]: > It was considerably more expensive than ROM chip-based boards and extremely sensitive to electromagnetic fields that could render the game unplayable. You can find the start-up sequence of these on YouTube. It’s pretty…idiosyncratic. It took forever because it had to physically warm the memory up. Though I guess taking forever is irrelevant if you are turning on a machine only once in the morning. In fact, the music in the ROM it plays while starting up was named “Morning Music”. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_System
  - nonrandomstring 3y ago
    Amazing. I never realised it got to commercial production, just that about 1985 it was heralded as the next amazing thing - with however many libraries of congress per fingernail etc.
    - Dylan16807 3y ago
      > with however many libraries of congress per fingernail etc. That's a bold claim! I found a NASA document from 1976 that expected bubble memory to reach about a terabit per cubic meter by the year 2000. And then you need over a hundred terabits for a library of congress. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/42884743.pdf https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/42884743.pdf
mewpmewp2 3y ago
Likely ruined by the reputation of bubble sort.
m463 3y ago
went the way of the stringy floppy
Aardwolf 3y ago
Also, MRAM, PRAM and FeRAM
- the8472 3y ago
  MRAM is available as a niche product, it just hasn't achieved the promise of being cheap and dense as dram, fast as sram, nonvolatile and higher write endurance than flash at the same time. It ticks maybe two or three of those boxes, which is still something.

wk_end 3y ago

Your own link tells you! The introduction of dramatically faster semiconductor memory chips pushed bubble into the slow end of the scale, and equally dramatic improvements in hard-drive capacity made it uncompetitive in price terms.[1] Bubble memory was used for some time in the 1970s and 1980s in applications where its non-moving nature was desirable for maintenance or shock-proofing reasons. The introduction of flash storage and similar technologies rendered even this niche uncompetitive, and bubble disappeared entirely by the late 1980s.

masspro 3y ago
There was a Konami arcade cabinet that (tried to) use bubble memory! It was considered a failure. Also from Wikipedia[0]: > It was considerably more expensive than ROM chip-based boards and extremely sensitive to electromagnetic fields that could render the game unplayable. You can find the start-up sequence of these on YouTube. It’s pretty…idiosyncratic. It took forever because it had to physically warm the memory up. Though I guess taking forever is irrelevant if you are turning on a machine only once in the morning. In fact, the music in the ROM it plays while starting up was named “Morning Music”. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_System
- nonrandomstring 3y ago
  Amazing. I never realised it got to commercial production, just that about 1985 it was heralded as the next amazing thing - with however many libraries of congress per fingernail etc.
  - Dylan16807 3y ago
    > with however many libraries of congress per fingernail etc. That's a bold claim! I found a NASA document from 1976 that expected bubble memory to reach about a terabit per cubic meter by the year 2000. And then you need over a hundred terabits for a library of congress. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/42884743.pdf https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/42884743.pdf

mewpmewp2 3y ago

Likely ruined by the reputation of bubble sort.

m463 3y ago

went the way of the stringy floppy

Aardwolf 3y ago

Also, MRAM, PRAM and FeRAM

the8472 3y ago
MRAM is available as a niche product, it just hasn't achieved the promise of being cheap and dense as dram, fast as sram, nonvolatile and higher write endurance than flash at the same time. It ticks maybe two or three of those boxes, which is still something.