The art of engineering

Close-up view of an experimental Flute memory array developed by scientists at IBM´s Thomas J. Watson Research Center. The highly compact device is made by molding tiny magnetic ferrite “tubes” over a mesh of fine wires. The name of the array is derived from the flute-like appearance of the individual magnetic tubes. It can store 5000 bits of information. Storage is accomplished by changing the magnetization direction of the ferrite material at the intersection of any two wires. More detailed information appears in the Focal Points department in this issue on page 186.