Magnetic Memories—Capabilities and Limitations

The capabilities and limitations of magnetic computer memories are discussed. Comparison of microferrites and thin films shows that in the near future both approaches are likely to provide 100‐nsec memories of several thousand words. A gradual increase in storage capacity, beyond today's few million bits, may result from batch fabrication of magnetics, but a significant increase requires methods of batch fabricating both the magnetic and the associated semiconductor devices. Capacities of hundred millions or billions of bits are likely to be attained sooner by superconductive techniques. Content addressable or associative memories of the magnetic and superconductive types are discussed briefly.