bubble memory

1 definition found

bubble memory - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  bubble memory
  
     A storage device built using materials such as gadolinium
     gallium garnet which are can be magnetised easily in only one
     direction.  A film of these materials can be created so that
     it is magnetisable in an up-down direction.  The magnetic
     fields tend to join together, some with the north pole facing
     up, some with the south.
  
     When a veritcal magnetic field is imposed on this, the areas
     in opposite alignment to the field shrink to circles, or
     'bubbles'.  A bubble can be formed by reversing the field in a
     small spot, and can be destroyed by increasing the field.
  
     Bubble memory is a kind of non-volatile storage but
     EEPROM, Flash Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory and
     ferroelectric technologies, which are also non-volatile, are
     faster.
  
     ["Great Microprocessors of the Past and Present", V 4.0.0,
     John Bayko <bayko@hercules.cs.uregina.ca>, Appendix C]
  
     (1995-02-03)