
For Sale: Soviet Military Ferrite Core Memory Stack Cube and Manual - joshwa
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USSR-Soviet-Russian-Military-Ferrite-Core-Memory-Stack-Cube-MANUAL-QUITE-RARE-/150928595047?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item23240b9867
======
JonnieCache
Nothing next to this: [http://www.ebay.com/itm/1967-vintage-London-MELLOTRON-
Progra...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/1967-vintage-London-MELLOTRON-Programme-
Effects-Generator-from-the-
BBC-/321183275203?nma=true&si=tmAbGv85A7IcLM0%252Fnkfudu6qpfk%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557)

My birthday is soon. Email in profile.

~~~
jacquesm
Wow, what a find. A tape based sampler. Amazing. That would be so much fun to
restore to working condition.

~~~
neverm0re
You can build 'em out of essentially scrap parts fairly easily, actually.
There's also dumps of the Melloton's sample reels floating around if you
particularly want that sound rather than producing your own.

Peter Christopherson and Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle made their own tape
loop sampler out of car tape decks, some simple soldering and a keyboard
controller in the late 70s. They could control the pitch, rewind, forward,
etc. and otherwise trigger various tape loops which was the basis of the
band's sound.

There's no reason to stop with tapes, though. MiniDisc is cheap, dead and has
seamless shuffle (!!!) which means a whole stack of 'em could be chained to a
mixer and played similarly. Still, you won't get the odd mechanical quirks and
failings of using a cassette based system, especially if you start munging
with manipulating playback speeds which may or may not be interesting to you.

~~~
samstave
Watch this documentary on history of synth[1] -- Chris is in it...

My favorite though, is Skinny Puppy.

[1] -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXm8O5cKrhI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXm8O5cKrhI)

~~~
jacquesm
thanks! watching the whole thing.

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ChuckMcM
I wonder if it is radioactive. :-) There was a brief flurry of selling various
rare Russian military parts that had been scavenged from equipment that had
been left behind in the towns around Chernobyl.

Probably not, and it is a fun artifact. I've got a number of PDP-8 core
memories (actually in PDP-8's :-) which are much less rare. That said, if
you're looking for a parent/child project, or just a fun project, you can make
a bit of "core memory" out of a #2 iron nut, a couple of full bridges, and an
opamp. We did this with the kids for a science project once and its a lot of
fun. You get to learn about hysteresis, the inherent 'analog' nature of
digital machines, and with careful planning you could impractically hide
information in the spare nuts drawer in the garage :-).

------
mhb
For the money, I'd prefer a Curta calculator:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta)

[http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1311.R...](http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1311.R1.TR2.TRC1.A0.Xcurta+calcu&_nkw=curta+calculator&_sacat=0&_from=R40)

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VladRussian2
the search in Russian for "Блок памяти БП-20" leads to this

[http://www.ngpedia.ru/cgi-
bin/getpage.exe?cn=61&uid=0.381138...](http://www.ngpedia.ru/cgi-
bin/getpage.exe?cn=61&uid=0.38113870145753&inte=6)

which points to "АСВТ-М" series of machines used in all areas of economics,
government, education, and military as well.

[http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/PHOTOS/M-6000_r.html](http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/PHOTOS/M-6000_r.html)

Usually the military components would have "ВП" stamp ("Военная приемка" \-
"accepted by military QA") - at least that was the case with electronic
components from torpedo and cruise missiles at the navy base hardware dump
that we sourced our hobby electronics components from in the childhood, and
this doesn't seem to have it :

[http://sovietsouvenirs.com/catalog/images/ic/core_memory-15-...](http://sovietsouvenirs.com/catalog/images/ic/core_memory-15-01.jpg)

------
colanderman
That's 4K _words_ ; each word seems to be 18 bits (assuming that's what
"width" means). That's 9 kB by today's standards.

~~~
unwind
Actually traditionally it's 9 KB, or 9 KiB if you're into the modern binary
prefixes.

9 kB would be 9,000 bytes, but this seems to be (4,096 * 18) / 8 = 9,216
bytes, which is exactly 9 KB.

Or maybe I'm just a hopeless old f*rt for caring about things like this, and
the world needs to get off my lawn.

~~~
Arnor
I obsess over these pedantic differences too and I'm <30 so don't feel too
bad. _repeatedly pitches 3.5 " floppies onto your lawn_

NERD SHAME EDIT: It's been a while... 3.5"

~~~
derekp7
What must really drive you nuts about your 3.5" floppies are the fact that
they are not 1.44 MB, or 1.44 MiB, or anything else that resembles 1.44 x some
factor. They are actualy 1000 x 1024 x 1440 bytes (so 1440 KiB). The 1.44 on
them is derived from a mixture of SI and Binary units.

~~~
mortehu
> 1000 x 1024 x 1440

I think you accidentally included a "1000 x".

~~~
derekp7
Yep, looks like I did. I'm having a hard time remembering memory and disk
sizes so small. Actually, I think I meant for the 1440 to 1.44, so it is 1.44
x 1000 x 1024 (showing mixing the base-10 and base-2 units). So a MB in the
1.44 MB floppy is 1024 x 1000. Or, to put it another way, to get the number
1.44 out of 1474560 bytes, you first divide 1474560 by 1024, then by 1000.
Weird.

------
ak217
Someone please buy this and loan it out to the Computer History Museum!

~~~
mhb
These aren't that rare. You can buy yourself a single board for significantly
less:

[http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=ferri...](http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=ferrite+core+memory&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc)

------
ck2
Is it just me or is that "art". Nice design.

Weren't the Russians making vacuum tubes for decades after the US stopped and
"perfected" them?

~~~
arethuza
The Mig-25 was fairly famous for using vacuum tubes - initially this was seen
as rather funny in the West then people realised that they actually had some
distinct advantages, including alleged resiliance to the EMP from nuclear
explosions:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-
Gurevich_MiG-25](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25)

~~~
mhb
As well as the audiophile-pleasing sound on those planes.

~~~
skore
You can't really "measure" or double-blind test how well this thing kills
people. Only if you have well developed taste can you appreciate the finer
details, the warmth, the clarity, the fidelity.

~~~
jlgreco
> _Only if you have well developed taste can you appreciate the finer details,
> the warmth, the clarity, the fidelity._

There are reports of ground crews for MiG-25's drinking the hydraulic fluid
for the planes, which was apparently based on ethanol. Truly an aircraft for
those with a discerning palette.

~~~
VladRussian2
>Truly an aircraft for those with a discerning palette.

or a lifesaver for aircrews stationed in "dry" countries like Yemen :)

------
vsviridov
It's kinda awesome, that the literal title of the manual is "Exploitation
manual" :)

~~~
205guy
I suspect it's just the standard (for the time) term in Russian for what would
be called a deployment manual and/or service manual in English. I've worked
with old French documents titled "Manuel d'exploitation" that are essentially
how to make the device/software work in production (installation/in
use/maintenance).

~~~
rits
As an >30 russian I can confirm. "Руководство по эксплуатации" is the standart
term in USSR for any type of the end user manuals. Now user manuals just the
"user" manuals (Руководство пользователя).

------
hcarvalhoalves
That's crazy, you can see it's handmade. I wonder if it still works?

~~~
nsxwolf
Might be fun to hook it up to an Arduino and see if you could read/write. I
imagine it needs its own power supply.

~~~
gvb
Core memory is _non-volatile._ If you hooked it up to a computer, you could
read out what was written into it. Theoretically.

NASA recovered the Challenger's core memory out of the ocean and was able to
read it out months after the disaster.

"On March 19, 1986, NASA announced that four of five Challenger General
Purpose Computers (GPC) had been recovered from the Atlantic and moved to the
IBM Federal Systems Division facility in Owego, NY. The GPCs were cleaned
under controlled conditions and submerged in deionized water at Kennedy Space
Center prior to air shipment March 16, 1986, to Owego. The GPC ferrite core
memories were examined for any possible residual data -- a process that at the
time was expected to take several months. This information was in the form of
data--not onboard voice--and this path was pursued to add any possible
additional information to the accident investigation. Many weeks later, it was
found that the additional data frames did not measurably add to the
information already gathered during the investigation."

Ref:
[http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/conspiracy/q0258a.shtml](http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/conspiracy/q0258a.shtml)

~~~
hcarvalhoalves
I was going to respond that to the parent, but you beat me :)

Imagine hooking up and figuring out you can read it? Even better, imagine it
contains nuke launch codes (in the best soviet-from-secret-agent-movie
tradition)?!

~~~
tachyonbeam
And imagine teenagers ended up acquiring it, and getting access to those
launch codes! _cue Hollywood movie scenario_

~~~
arethuza
Only to discover that the code to launch the missiles at the Soviets was set
to 00000000

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_Action_Link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_Action_Link)

------
cpr
Brings back memories.

I remember IBM 360 "large core storage" devices at the Naval Electronics Lab
on Point Loma (San Diego, where I worked as a high school student)--boxes that
held a MEGABYTE of core (I think several milliseconds per byte access, so more
like a fast DASD), which cost a MILLION dollars. ($1/byte)

We systems programmers thought we were in hog heaven, since most 360
mainframes of the day (1971) had 32KB or 64KB main memories. (Yes, KB.)

------
feritkan
So this thing runs in space? They went to space with this?

~~~
jacquesm
Judging by the time it was made it was at least intended to be used in a
hostile environment. By 1983 the days of core memory were long gone so any
application involving ferrite would have to be special to justify the
additional cost over using semiconductor ram.

~~~
MichaelMoser123
I think it was supposed to withstand the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear
explosion - Special toys for the military in preparation of WW3.

"Soviet Cold War–era military aircraft often had avionics based on vacuum
tubes due to limited solid-state capabilities and a belief that the vacuum-
tube gear would survive better." says
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_puls](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_puls)

------
goatforce5
I know of someone who has a piece of EDSAC (or maybe EDSAC 2) on his shelf. It
looks very similar to:

[http://www.chezfred.org.uk/University/ComputerXHistory/First...](http://www.chezfred.org.uk/University/ComputerXHistory/FirstComputers-1/1960-EDSAC-
DSCN1489.htm)

He happened to be in the vicinity as it was being decommissioned. It's
sometimes used as a doorstop.

------
sgt
I would love to buy this and interface to it via the GPIO pins of the
Raspberry Pi.

Perhaps the Pi could even piggyback onto the stack cube itself, and you could
house it inside some kind of a glass container with inputs and output ports
accessible from the outside.

It'd certainly be a conversation starter, and let's face it, who doesn't love
core memory?

------
galaktor
Reminds me of a project of a friend (which I submitted a while ago): Magnetic
core memory using Arduino

[http://www.corememoryshield.com/](http://www.corememoryshield.com/)

previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3888926](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3888926)

------
DenisM
I had a heap of these at home as a kid, only they were slightly different in
that they ferrite rings and the wires were encased in a gel to reduce
mechanical strain (so likely a later design). Had I only known they would be
selling for thousands of dollars...

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Mine wasn't; after a while every time I set it down, little broken cores would
rain down. They apparently decay over time.

------
DennisP
My dad used to work on mainframes at IBM. When I was about seven years old he
took me to work one day and showed me memory like this. Except he could open
the door and you could look at a whole cabinet full of crisscrossed wires.

------
themstheones
Reminds me of this video of Adam Savage showing off his byte:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQWcIkoqXwg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQWcIkoqXwg)

------
nwh
Page archive for future reference —
[http://archive.is/fj080](http://archive.is/fj080)

------
mindslight
I wouldn't be surprised if Newark/Arrow/Avnet are still stocking these.

------
rdtsc
4096 words @ 400kHz

Logical "1" \- 20-60mV Logical "0" \- 10mV (not more)

------
techdragon
Yeah I love the look of this, but a 2K buy it now price, not exactly letting
people find its true value. (not getting into free market stuff, just saying
these kind of "i think its worth $X thousand, buy it or not" stuff isn't
exactly the point of eBay)

~~~
UnfalseDesign
eBay has been slowly moving away from being an auction house (the internet's
garage sale) for years now. They have been moving towards becoming the
"storefront" for people selling things without needing an actual physical
store. Hence the attention to "Buy It Now" and "Add to Cart" over "Bid".

------
flux_w42
I'm wondering if it still contains data, if it's working.

------
consider_this
This is a very cool find. Thanks for sharing.

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Nekorosu
Absolutely overpriced.

~~~
nsxwolf
Overpriced in terms of today's RAM prices (yes!), or overpriced for a Soviet
4K RAM module of its type? I've never seen one before so I have no idea.

~~~
noobs
Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic-
core_memory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic-core_memory) states that:
"in 1980, the price of a 16-kW (kiloword, equivalent to 32kB) core memory
board that fitted into a DEC Q-bus computer was around US $3,000."

This one is a 4kW or 9kB from 1983, I'll let you do the math!

~~~
leddt
If you consider inflation and, more importantly, rarity, I think it's not that
overpriced.

------
raphar
beautiful!

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a3voices
Seems like the kind of thing that you'd keep in your attic forever.

~~~
jufo
True, I've got a 4k x 12bit core store in mine, and it's been there over 30
years :-)

