Core 64 Badge Kit Brings Classic Magnetic Core Memory to Life
Using the earliest form of magnetic RAM, core memory, Andy Geppert has created a unique and mesmerizing badge design.
Andy Geppert has built a drawing tablet with a difference: It uses classic magnetic-core memory and a magnetic stylus to allow the user to draw on an LED matrix display, while hiding a few clever tricks up its sleeve.
Before the advent of modern DRAM and SRAM modules, computer systems used a variety of different forms of memory. The most well-remembered of these is magnetic core memory, a series of two-dimensional grids made by weaving wires through magnetic toroids and using X-Y coordinates to address each toroid for reading or writing — and while the technology itself has been retired, the name lives on every time a system creates a "core dump" of its memory contents.
"Many people may have heard of core memory (most recently with the buzz surrounding the Apollo Guidance Computer) but few have experienced it," Geppert explains of his creation. "This project enables interaction and education using core memory that is unexpectedly engaging with the door wide open for more exploration.
"Core memory is a lost technology and you will be able to physically interact with it using a magnet. You simply have to try it! The array of LEDs underneath brings the cores to life in a completely new way. You will be able to create your own core/light interactions with Arduino."
At its heart, the Core 64 badge is a drawing tablet: Using a magnetic stylus to physically interact with each toroid in the core memory, the modern LEDs behind each memory location light up. That's only part of its capabilities, however: The cores can operate as "touch RAM," providing live and programmable interaction — including, Geppert notes, a playable game of Snake.
The project has been in development since mid-2019, and is now finally coming together. "This video shows and describes the 'core' functionality I've been trying to achieve," Geppert writes in his latest project update. "It's a great feeling to finally be at this point in the project! Even though I've had the scrolling text working for awhile on it's own, I'm now able to make it truly interactive by using the core memory as screen RAM.
"I've said it before, but you really do have to experience this to get the feel for how fluid and interactive it is. It is satisfying to use the stylus on the cores, and have the LEDs instantly respond. The mode where the LEDs constantly show the extent of the magnetic flux is similar to moving sand in a Zen garden. It just flows."
More information is available on Geppert's project page; he has announced that semi-completed kits of the Core 64 will hopefully be available to buy by the end of the year.