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