The problem with bubble memory was that it was serial. All the bits were stored as little magnetic domains, but the only way to read those domains were to actually shift them to a particular part of the IC where special circutry existed to read them. The domain storage was logically laid out linearly, and as I recall, the domains could only be shifted in 1 direction due to the physical layout of the IC used to hold them. Thus, if you read a byte and then tried to read it again, all the domains that composed the bits in that byte had to be shifted around the entire domain storage array again.
Now while a lot could have been done with caching and using multiple domain storage arrays, bubble memories were serial devices and their latencies just would not scale up well as you added more bits to them. Bubbles would make a good NV storage device, but could never replace RAM.
Bubble memories were introduced in the late 70's, I believe. I think their big failure was lack of storage space and speed. Their commercial death knell was the ramp-up of HDD storage capacities in the mid-80's. They did have the benefit of having no moving parts and I think a military hardened version was available. If they exist at all any more, I'm sure it's just in a few niches.
JTS
Baldric, you wouldn't know a cunning plan if it painted itself purple and danced around on a harpsichord singing 'cunning plans are here again' - Lord Edmund Blackadder
I'll bet you they won't play this song on the radio I bet you they won't play this new -BEEP-ing song It's not that it's -HONK- or -HONK HONK- controversial just that the -KA_CHING-ing words are awfully strong You can't say -AHOOGA- on the radio, or -SWOOSH- or -SPROING- or -AACK- You can't even say, "I'd like to -ZZZIP- you someday" unless you're a doctor with a very large -BOING- I'll bet you they won't play this song on the radio I'll bet you they won't -SCRRRRATCH-ing well programme it I'll bet you those -KA-CHING-ing old programme directors will think it's a load of horse -SPLAT-
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, that would really put a stop to the URL hijackers and unscrupulous sites.
Now while a lot could have been done with caching and using multiple domain storage arrays, bubble memories were serial devices and their latencies just would not scale up well as you added more bits to them. Bubbles would make a good NV storage device, but could never replace RAM.
Bubble memories were introduced in the late 70's, I believe. I think their big failure was lack of storage space and speed. Their commercial death knell was the ramp-up of HDD storage capacities in the mid-80's. They did have the benefit of having no moving parts and I think a military hardened version was available. If they exist at all any more, I'm sure it's just in a few niches.
JTS
Baldric, you wouldn't know a cunning plan if it painted itself purple and danced around on a harpsichord singing 'cunning plans are here again' - Lord Edmund Blackadder
Actually...
I'll bet you they won't play this song on the radio
I bet you they won't play this new -BEEP-ing song
It's not that it's -HONK- or -HONK HONK- controversial
just that the -KA_CHING-ing words are awfully strong
You can't say -AHOOGA- on the radio,
or -SWOOSH- or -SPROING- or -AACK-
You can't even say, "I'd like to -ZZZIP- you someday"
unless you're a doctor with a very large -BOING-
I'll bet you they won't play this song on the radio
I'll bet you they won't -SCRRRRATCH-ing well programme it
I'll bet you those -KA-CHING-ing old programme directors
will think it's a load of horse -SPLAT-
Pointless comments should always be right