The Vintage Memory Experiment That Makes You Appreciate Modern Data Storage

A user on the social network X under the pseudonym @dyd_Nao has showcased a storage device he created, which stands out dramatically from existing market offerings. This massive board, about the size of a plate, is designed to hold a mere 128 bytes of data (no error here – exactly 128 bytes). Photo X (@dyd_Nao)

Not only is the storage capacity minuscule, but it also relies on a rather antiquated technology. Magnetic core memory is used here, a technology that harkens back to computers from the 1950s to the 1970s. These core memory chips are famous for their non-volatile nature, yet they are limited by their low capacity, which largely explains the small size of this device. Despite its outdated nature, this experiment harks back to a time when such technology was cutting-edge. More recently, magnetic core memory has been primarily used for educational purposes and demonstrations to showcase the evolution in computing technology.

Photo X (@dyd_Nao)

Another peculiar feature of this system is that while the memory itself is non-volatile, the data gets erased upon reading. Simply put, you can only read the data from this storage once. This quirk highlights the experiment’s nature – a throwback to a different era of computing rather than any practical application. This experiment serves as a stark contrast to modern storage technologies, such as SSDs (Solid State Drives) and NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) drives, which offer vastly superior speed, capacity, and reliability.