This week, MCI wants to celebrate the granting of a very important patent – the patent for RAM (coincident current magnetic core memory). As you all know, no one would be able to use a computer or even read this post without this invention. The inventor was Jay Forrester. His biography said that “his early interest in electricity was spurred, perhaps, by the fact that the ranch [his home] had none. While in high school, he built a wind-driven, 12-volt electrical system using old car parts—it gave the ranch its first electric power.”.
A man after our own hearts, he graduated with a bachelors degree in electrical engineering in 1939. His career was spent in MIT and, by the end of WWII, he was heading up the Whirlwind Project to develop a digital computer. By the early 50s, their mission was complete. Forrester finally retired for MIT in 1989, having had a very long and illustrious career, scattered with awards for his work.
Forrester’s memory was comprised of a wire mesh of ferrite rings and metal wire. This almost knitted formation created a location where binary information could be recorded and retrieved magnetically. There was also the ability to pinpoint specific intersections or addresses within the core rings, from which information could be stored and then recalled at random. Hence the ‘R’ in RAM.
We hope that this remarkable electrical engineer will inspire you this week.