From: utzoo!decvax!microsof!uw-beave!ubc-visi!alberta!steve
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Title: core memory (i.e. mainstore)
Article-I.D.: alberta.219
Posted: Tue Feb 22 16:19:39 1983
Received: Fri Feb 25 02:50:34 1983

One of my favourite misused words in the computer vocabulary is `core'.
When I started in Computing Science there was only one type of main store
in common use, and that was the little round doughnut shaped objects
called cores. The bits were stored as magnetization on these iron cores.
Then came the semiconductor memories, these stored bits by charging a
capacitor (albeit a very small one) or in an bistable multivibrator (or
flip-flop). For some reason a large number of computer persons (especially
the newer generation) continued to use the word core to describe memories
built with this new technology even though the dictionary definition did
not apply. For your information "The Concise Oxford Dictionary" (1976)
gives the definition of core as:
	"Horny capsule containing seeds of apple, pear, etc.; central part
	cut out (esp. of rock etc. in boring); piece of soft iron
	forming center of electromagnet or induction coil; ... region
	of fissile material in nuclear reactor; unit of structure in
	computer, whose magnetization is reversible; central strand of
	rope, inner strand of electric cable."
You will notice that the traditional definition (before computers) bore
a similarity to the word core when used to describe the doughnuts of the
past. I do not think that the definition could (or should) be generalized 
to include the current memory technology. Any comments? I will collect
and summarize
	Steven Sutphen
	University of Alberta
	decvax!microsoft!ubc-vision!alberta!steve
	ubcvax!lbl-csam!uw-beaver!ubc-vision!alberta!steve