bubble memory

American  

noun

Computers.

1. a storage medium employing tiny, movable, bubble-shaped magnetized areas within a magnetic material to represent data bits.

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bubble memory British  

noun

1. computing a method of storing high volumes of data by the use of minute pockets of magnetism (bubbles) in a semiconducting material: the bubbles may be caused to migrate past a read head or to a buffer area for storage

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Etymology

Origin of bubble memory

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

Most of these innovations are taken for granted today, but they were new at the time: for example, the flat electroluminescent graphic display, the low-profile keyboard, bubble memory and the enclosure in die-cast magnesium.

From New York Times • Sep. 10, 2012

A 250,000-bit experimental bubble memory has already been produced.

From Time Magazine Archive

TI last summer abandoned another information-storage technology, called the magnetic bubble memory, because it never caught on with enough computer makers.

From Time Magazine Archive

The company had invested more than $50 million to develop the bubble memory.

From Time Magazine Archive

Inside they found equipment for the manufacture of so-called bubble memory chips, a U.S.-made state-of-the-art semiconductor ideally suited for storing guidance information in missiles.

From Time Magazine Archive