Magnetic core memory reborn

Ben North
Oliver Nash

Core memory board (1960s)
Arduino core memory shield (2011)

Welcome! You have arrived at a website dedicated to the lost art of magnetic core memory manufacture. This site came about following our success building an Arduino-based magnetic core memory module.

Building a core memory shield was a great learning experience and a lot of fun, so we thought it would be worth writing up some details for anyone else who might like to do something similar. As well as the report, we provide all the resources (EAGLE files, gerber files, parts list, etc.) necessary to build this Arduino shield.

We couldn’t resist the temptation to publish our report on May 11th, 2011 — the 60th anniversary of the original core memory patent. Although the report contains everything you need to know to build the Arduino shield, there is a lot more we would like to say about our experience building the shield. We may one day post a more detailed build log.

We hope you enjoy reading about the core memory shield and would be delighted to hear any feedback.

Full report on the core memory shield[PDF]

Eagle files, Gerber files, parts list, and Arduino code for the boards

(Hardware design files licensed under the TAPR OHL; software under the GNU GPL; details in zip-file.)

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