Remembering Magnetic Memories and the Apollo AGC

2earth 13 points 3 comments April 01, 2026
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Discussion Highlights (2 comments)

bradley13

I find it remarkable that magnetic core memory was used in (semi-)modern fighter aircraft. Their systems have to pass extreme vibration testing, and you would think that core memory would be very susceptible to vibration. Core memory was in use a lot longer than people think. Some fighters being produced as recently as the 1980s still used it.

alnwlsn

As seen on Curious Marc, where some real AGC core rope ROMs are read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hckwxq8rnr0 They even have to work around some design mistakes made in the modules in order to read them correctly. Not many living people know more about the AGC than those guys (especially Mike Stewart).

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