An industrial robot is a robot system used for manufacturing . Industrial robots are automated, programmable and capable of movement on three or more axes.
147-449: In computing , magnetic-core memory is a form of random-access memory . It predominated for roughly 20 years between 1955 and 1975, and is often just called core memory , or, informally, core . Core memory uses toroids (rings) of a hard magnetic material (usually a semi-hard ferrite ). Each core stores one bit of information. Two or more wires pass through each core, forming an X-Y array of cores. When an electrical current above
294-405: A GUI or text based commands in which the required X-Y-Z position may be specified and edited. Teach pendant: Robot positions can be taught via a teach pendant. This is a handheld control and programming unit. The common features of such units are the ability to manually send the robot to a desired position, or "inch" or "jog" to adjust a position. They also have a means to change the speed since
441-607: A visual programming language , the programming is done via drag and drop of predefined template/building blocks. They often feature the execution of simulations to evaluate the feasibility and offline programming in combination. If the system is able to compile and upload native robot code to the robot controller, the user no longer has to learn each manufacturer's proprietary language . Therefore, this approach can be an important step to standardize programming methods. Others in addition, machine operators often use user interface devices, typically touchscreen units, which serve as
588-477: A 1 or 0. This writing process also causes electricity to be induced into nearby wires. If the new pulse being applied in the X-Y wires is the same as the last applied to that core, the existing field will do nothing, and no induction will result. If the new pulse is in the opposite direction, a pulse will be generated. This is normally picked up in a separate "sense" wire, allowing the system to know whether that core held
735-399: A 1 or 0. As this readout process requires the core to be written, this process is known as destructive readout , and requires additional circuitry to reset the core to its original value if the process flipped it. When not being read or written, the cores maintain the last value they had, even if the power is turned off. Therefore, they are a type of non-volatile memory . Depending on how it
882-478: A 2-dimensional environment, three axes are sufficient, two for displacement and one for orientation. The cylindrical coordinate robots are characterized by their rotary joint at the base and at least one prismatic joint connecting its links. They can move vertically and horizontally by sliding. The compact effector design allows the robot to reach tight work-spaces without any loss of speed. Spherical coordinate robots only have rotary joints. They are one of
1029-668: A bit. A Wang core shift register is in the Revolution exhibit at the Computer History Museum . The second, Forrester's, was the coincident-current system, which enabled a small number of wires to control a large number of cores enabling 3D memory arrays of several million bits. The first use of magnetic core was in the Whirlwind computer, and Project Whirlwind's "most famous contribution was the random-access, magnetic core storage feature." Commercialization followed quickly. Magnetic core
1176-484: A broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web and the infrastructure to support email. Computer programming is the process of writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code and documentation of computer programs. This source code
1323-399: A certain threshold is applied to the wires, the core will become magnetized. The core to be assigned a value – or written – is selected by powering one X and one Y wire to half of the required power, such that only the single core at the intersection is written. Depending on the direction of the currents, the core will pick up a clockwise or counterclockwise magnetic field, storing
1470-403: A common base. Delta robots are particularly useful for direct control tasks and high maneuvering operations (such as quick pick-and-place tasks). Delta robots take advantage of four bar or parallelogram linkage systems. Furthermore, industrial robots can have a serial or parallel architecture. Serial architectures a.k.a. serial manipulators are very common industrial robots; they are designed as
1617-503: A complete replica of the robot in 1997. George Devol applied for the first robotics patents in 1954 (granted in 1961). The first company to produce a robot was Unimation , founded by Devol and Joseph F. Engelberger in 1956. Unimation robots were also called programmable transfer machines since their main use at first was to transfer objects from one point to another, less than a dozen feet or so apart. They used hydraulic actuators and were programmed in joint coordinates , i.e.
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#17330862618431764-431: A computer greatly simplifies the programming process. Specialized robot software is run either in the robot controller or in the computer or both depending on the system design. There are two basic entities that need to be taught (or programmed): positional data and procedure. For example, in a task to move a screw from a feeder to a hole the positions of the feeder and the hole must first be taught or programmed. Secondly
1911-497: A computer's capabilities, but typically do not directly apply them in the performance of tasks that benefit the user, unlike application software. Application software, also known as an application or an app , is computer software designed to help the user perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software , accounting software , office suites , graphics software , and media players . Many application programs deal principally with documents . Apps may be bundled with
2058-502: A considerable voltage across the whole line due to the superposition of the voltage at each single core. This potential risk of "misread" limits the minimum number of Sense wires. Increasing Sense wires also requires more decode circuitry. Core memory controllers were designed so that every read was followed immediately by a write (because the read forced all bits to 0, and because the write assumed this had happened). Instruction sets were designed to take advantage of this. For example,
2205-581: A converted aspirin press in 1949. Rajchman later developed versions of the Williams tube and led development of the Selectron . Two key inventions led to the development of magnetic core memory in 1951. The first, An Wang's, was the write-after-read cycle, which solved the problem of how to use a storage medium in which the act of reading erased the data read, enabling the construction of a serial, one-dimensional shift register (of 50 bits), using two cores to store
2352-584: A data word. For instance, a machine might use 32 grids of core with a single bit of the 32-bit word in each one, and the controller could access the entire 32-bit word in a single read/write cycle. Core memory is non-volatile storage —it can retain its contents indefinitely without power. It is also relatively unaffected by EMP and radiation. These were important advantages for some applications like first-generation industrial programmable controllers , military installations and vehicles like fighter aircraft , as well as spacecraft , and led to core being used for
2499-445: A low speed is usually required for careful positioning, or while test-running through a new or modified routine. A large emergency stop button is usually included as well. Typically once the robot has been programmed there is no more use for the teach pendant. All teach pendants are equipped with a 3-position deadman switch . In the manual mode, it allows the robot to move only when it is in the middle position (partially pressed). If it
2646-525: A manipulation task requires less than 6 DoF, the use of lower mobility manipulators, with fewer than 6 DoF, may bring advantages in terms of simpler architecture, easier control, faster motion and lower cost. For example, the 3 DoF Delta robot has lower 3T mobility and has proven to be very successful for rapid pick-and-place translational positioning applications. The workspace of lower mobility manipulators may be decomposed into 'motion' and 'constraint' subspaces. For example, 3 position coordinates constitute
2793-424: A metal or plastic plate. The term "core" comes from conventional transformers whose windings surround a magnetic core . In core memory, the wires pass once through any given core—they are single-turn devices. The properties of materials used for memory cores are dramatically different from those used in power transformers. The magnetic material for a core memory requires a high degree of magnetic remanence ,
2940-483: A multiple axis robot. The mathematics of the relationship between joint angles and actual spatial coordinates is called kinematics. See robot control Positioning by Cartesian coordinates may be done by entering the coordinates into the system or by using a teach pendant which moves the robot in X-Y-Z directions. It is much easier for a human operator to visualize motions up/down, left/right, etc. than to move each joint one at
3087-524: A number of years after availability of semiconductor MOS memory (see also MOSFET ). For example, the Space Shuttle IBM AP-101B flight computers used core memory, which preserved the contents of memory even through the Challenger ' s disintegration and subsequent plunge into the sea in 1986. Another characteristic of early core was that the coercive force was very temperature-sensitive;
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#17330862618433234-405: A one and a zero, these diagnostics tested the core memory with worst-case patterns and had to run for several hours. As most computers had just a single core-memory board, these diagnostics also moved themselves around in memory, making it possible to test every bit. An advanced test was called a " Shmoo test " in which the half-select currents were modified along with the time at which the sense line
3381-454: A schoolmate from China. MIT wanted to charge IBM $ 0.02 per bit royalty on core memory. In 1964, after years of legal wrangling, IBM paid MIT $ 13 million for rights to Forrester's patent—the largest patent settlement to that date. In 1953, tested but not-yet-strung cores cost US$ 0.33 each. As manufacturing volume increased, by 1970 IBM was producing 20 billion cores per year, and the price per core fell to US$ 0.0003 . Core sizes shrank over
3528-528: A serial robot; however in the parallel robot the off-axis flexibility of a joint is also constrained by the effect of the other chains. It is this closed-loop stiffness that makes the overall parallel manipulator stiff relative to its components, unlike the serial chain that becomes progressively less rigid with more components. A full parallel manipulator can move an object with up to 6 degrees of freedom (DoF), determined by 3 translation 3T and 3 rotation 3R coordinates for full 3T3R m obility. However, when
3675-512: A series of links connected by motor-actuated joints that extend from a base to an end-effector. SCARA, Stanford manipulators are typical examples of this category. A parallel manipulator is designed so that each chain is usually short, simple and can thus be rigid against unwanted movement, compared to a serial manipulator . Errors in one chain's positioning are averaged in conjunction with the others, rather than being cumulative. Each actuator must still move within its own degree of freedom , as for
3822-458: A set of instructions called a computer program . The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute the instructions. The same program in its human-readable source code form, enables a programmer to study and develop a sequence of steps known as an algorithm . Because the instructions can be carried out in different types of computers, a single set of source instructions converts to machine instructions according to
3969-589: A single cycle. A typical machine's register set usually used only one small plane of this form of core memory. Some very large memories were built with this technology, for example the Extended Core Storage (ECS) auxiliary memory in the CDC 6600 , which was up to 2 million 60-bit words. Core rope memory is a read-only memory (ROM) form of core memory. In this case, the cores, which had more linear magnetic materials, were simply used as transformers ; no information
4116-435: A superposition, i.e. in both states of one and zero, simultaneously. Thus, the value of the qubit is not between 1 and 0, but changes depending on when it is measured. This trait of qubits is known as quantum entanglement , and is the core idea of quantum computing that allows quantum computers to do large scale computations. Quantum computing is often used for scientific research in cases where traditional computers do not have
4263-510: A time. When the desired position is reached it is then defined in some way particular to the robot software in use, e.g. P1 - P5 below. Most articulated robots perform by storing a series of positions in memory, and moving to them at various times in their programming sequence. For example, a robot which is moving items from one place (bin A) to another (bin B) might have a simple 'pick and place' program similar to
4410-491: A value in memory could be read and modified almost as quickly as it could be read and written. In the PDP-6 , the AOS* (or SOS* ) instructions incremented (or decremented) the value between the read phase and the write phase of a single memory cycle (perhaps signaling the memory controller to pause briefly in the middle of the cycle). This might be twice as fast as the process of obtaining
4557-460: A virtual world allows for a variety of mechanisms, devices, configurations and controllers to be tried and tested before being applied to a "real world" system. Robotics simulators have the ability to provide real-time computing of the simulated motion of an industrial robot using both geometric modeling and kinematics modeling. Manufacturing independent robot programming tools are a relatively new but flexible way to program robot applications. Using
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4704-421: Is spintronics . Spintronics can provide computing power and storage, without heat buildup. Some research is being done on hybrid chips, which combine photonics and spintronics. There is also research ongoing on combining plasmonics , photonics, and electronics. Cloud computing is a model that allows for the use of computing resources, such as servers or applications, without the need for interaction between
4851-460: Is a discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer hardware and software. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering (or electrical engineering ), software design , and hardware-software integration, rather than just software engineering or electronic engineering. Computer engineers are involved in many hardware and software aspects of computing, from
4998-414: Is a person who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to programming may also be known as a programmer analyst. A programmer's primary computer language ( C , C++ , Java , Lisp , Python , etc.) is often prefixed to
5145-402: Is a stored 1 , while the other is a stored 0 . The toroidal shape of a core is preferred since the magnetic path is closed, there are no magnetic poles and thus very little external flux. This allows the cores to be packed closely together without their magnetic fields interacting. The alternating 45-degree positioning used in early core arrays was necessitated by the diagonal sense wires. With
5292-409: Is also synonymous with counting and calculating . In earlier times, it was used in reference to the action performed by mechanical computing machines , and before that, to human computers . The history of computing is longer than the history of computing hardware and includes the history of methods intended for pen and paper (or for chalk and slate) with or without the aid of tables. Computing
5439-414: Is an area of research that brings together the disciplines of computer science, information theory, and quantum physics. While the idea of information as part of physics is relatively new, there appears to be a strong tie between information theory and quantum mechanics. Whereas traditional computing operates on a binary system of ones and zeros, quantum computing uses qubits . Qubits are capable of being in
5586-413: Is applied to each bit sense/write line for a bit to be set. In some designs, the word read and word write lines were combined into a single wire, resulting in a memory array with just two wires per bit. For write, multiple word write lines could be selected. This offered a performance advantage over X/Y line coincident-current in that multiple words could be cleared or written with the same value in
5733-553: Is becoming an increasingly important factor in the modern industrial robot. The earliest known industrial robot, conforming to the ISO definition was completed by "Bill" Griffith P. Taylor in 1937 and published in Meccano Magazine , March 1938. The crane-like device was built almost entirely using Meccano parts, and powered by a single electric motor. Five axes of movement were possible, including grab and grab rotation . Automation
5880-402: Is by vacuum or magnets . End effectors are frequently highly complex, made to match the handled product and often capable of picking up an array of products at one time. They may utilize various sensors to aid the robot system in locating, handling, and positioning products. For a given robot the only parameters necessary to completely locate the end effector (gripper, welding torch, etc.) of
6027-423: Is computer software designed to operate and control computer hardware, and to provide a platform for running application software. System software includes operating systems , utility software , device drivers , window systems , and firmware . Frequently used development tools such as compilers , linkers , and debuggers are classified as system software. System software and middleware manage and integrate
Magnetic-core memory - Misplaced Pages Continue
6174-476: Is denoted CMOS-integrated nanophotonics (CINP). One benefit of optical interconnects is that motherboards, which formerly required a certain kind of system on a chip (SoC), can now move formerly dedicated memory and network controllers off the motherboards, spreading the controllers out onto the rack. This allows standardization of backplane interconnects and motherboards for multiple types of SoCs, which allows more timely upgrades of CPUs. Another field of research
6321-414: Is fully pressed in or completely released, the robot stops. This principle of operation allows natural reflexes to be used to increase safety. Lead-by-the-nose: this is a technique offered by many robot manufacturers. In this method, one user holds the robot's manipulator, while another person enters a command which de-energizes the robot causing it to go into limp. The user then moves the robot by hand to
6468-485: Is intimately tied to the representation of numbers, though mathematical concepts necessary for computing existed before numeral systems . The earliest known tool for use in computation is the abacus , and it is thought to have been invented in Babylon circa between 2700 and 2300 BC. Abaci, of a more modern design, are still used as calculation tools today. The first recorded proposal for using digital electronics in computing
6615-710: Is its potential to support energy efficiency. Allowing thousands of instances of computation to occur on one single machine instead of thousands of individual machines could help save energy. It could also ease the transition to renewable energy source, since it would suffice to power one server farm with renewable energy, rather than millions of homes and offices. However, this centralized computing model poses several challenges, especially in security and privacy. Current legislation does not sufficiently protect users from companies mishandling their data on company servers. This suggests potential for further legislative regulations on cloud computing and tech companies. Quantum computing
6762-443: Is most common in robot arms that utilize a "triple-roll wrist". This is a wrist about which the three axes of the wrist, controlling yaw, pitch, and roll, all pass through a common point. An example of a wrist singularity is when the path through which the robot is traveling causes the first and third axes of the robot's wrist (i.e. robot's axes 4 and 6) to line up. The second wrist axis then attempts to spin 180° in zero time to maintain
6909-462: Is normally associated with three independent teams. Substantial work in the field was carried out by the Shanghai -born American physicists An Wang and Way-Dong Woo , who created the pulse transfer controlling device in 1949. The patent described a type of memory that would today be known as a delay-line or shift-register system. Each bit was stored using a pair of transformers, one that held
7056-443: Is obsolete, computer memory is still sometimes called "core" even though it is made of semiconductors, particularly by people who had worked with machines having actual core memory. The files that result from saving the entire contents of memory to disk for inspection, which is nowadays commonly performed automatically when a major error occurs in a computer program, are still called " core dumps ". Algorithms which work on more data than
7203-447: Is referred to as a workcell , or cell. A typical cell might contain a parts feeder, a molding machine and a robot. The various machines are 'integrated' and controlled by a single computer or PLC . How the robot interacts with other machines in the cell must be programmed, both with regard to their positions in the cell and synchronizing with them. Software: The computer is installed with corresponding interface software. The use of
7350-559: Is sometimes considered a sub-discipline of electrical engineering , telecommunications, computer science , information technology, or computer engineering , since it relies upon the theoretical and practical application of these disciplines. The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users. This includes millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, ranging in scope from local to global. These networks are linked by
7497-623: Is still making articulated robots for general industrial and cleanroom applications and even bought the robotic division of Bosch in late 2004. Only a few non-Japanese companies ultimately managed to survive in this market, the major ones being: Adept Technology , Stäubli , the Swedish - Swiss company ABB Asea Brown Boveri , the German company KUKA Robotics and the Italian company Comau . Accuracy and repeatability are different measures. Repeatability
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#17330862618437644-687: Is the application of computers and telecommunications equipment to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data, often in the context of a business or other enterprise. The term is commonly used as a synonym for computers and computer networks, but also encompasses other information distribution technologies such as television and telephones. Several industries are associated with information technology, including computer hardware, software, electronics , semiconductors , internet, telecom equipment , e-commerce , and computer services . DNA-based computing and quantum computing are areas of active research for both computing hardware and software, such as
7791-509: Is the study of complementary networks of hardware and software (see information technology) that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create, and distribute data . The ACM 's Computing Careers describes IS as: "A majority of IS [degree] programs are located in business schools; however, they may have different names such as management information systems, computer information systems, or business information systems. All IS degrees combine business and computing topics, but
7938-449: Is thus often developed by a team of domain experts, each a specialist in some area of development. However, the term programmer may apply to a range of program quality, from hacker to open source contributor to professional. It is also possible for a single programmer to do most or all of the computer programming needed to generate the proof of concept to launch a new killer application . A programmer, computer programmer, or coder
8085-421: Is usually the most important criterion for a robot and is similar to the concept of 'precision' in measurement—see accuracy and precision . ISO 9283 sets out a method whereby both accuracy and repeatability can be measured. Typically a robot is sent to a taught position a number of times and the error is measured at each return to the position after visiting 4 other positions. Repeatability is then quantified using
8232-429: Is written in a programming language , which is an artificial language that is often more restrictive than natural languages , but easily translated by the computer. Programming is used to invoke some desired behavior (customization) from the machine. Writing high-quality source code requires knowledge of both the computer science domain and the domain in which the application will be used. The highest-quality software
8379-554: The CPU type. The execution process carries out the instructions in a computer program. Instructions express the computations performed by the computer. They trigger sequences of simple actions on the executing machine. Those actions produce effects according to the semantics of the instructions. Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer, including the central processing unit , memory , and input/output . Computational logic and computer architecture are key topics in
8526-468: The IBM 7090 , early IBM 7094s , and IBM 7030 . Core was heated instead of cooled because the primary requirement was a consistent temperature, and it was easier (and cheaper) to maintain a constant temperature well above room temperature than one at or below it. Diagnosing hardware problems in core memory required time-consuming diagnostic programs to be run. While a quick test checked if every bit could contain
8673-490: The PDP-6 at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by 1967. This was considered "unimaginably huge" at the time, and nicknamed the "Moby Memory". It cost $ 380,000 ($ 0.04/bit) and its width, height and depth was 175 cm × 127 cm × 64 cm (69 in × 50 in × 25 in) with its supporting circuitry (189 kilobits/cubic foot = 6.7 kilobits/litre). Its cycle time
8820-444: The function of the program it implements, either by directly providing instructions to the computer hardware or by serving as input to another piece of software. The term was coined to contrast with the old term hardware (meaning physical devices). In contrast to hardware, software is intangible. Software is also sometimes used in a more narrow sense, meaning application software only. System software, or systems software,
8967-464: The standard deviation of those samples in all three dimensions. A typical robot can, of course make a positional error exceeding that and that could be a problem for the process. Moreover, the repeatability is different in different parts of the working envelope and also changes with speed and payload. ISO 9283 specifies that accuracy and repeatability should be measured at maximum speed and at maximum payload. But this results in pessimistic values whereas
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#17330862618439114-511: The V200 developed in 1953 and released in 1955. Numerous uses in computing, telephony and industrial process control followed. Wang's patent was not granted until 1955, and by that time magnetic-core memory was already in use. This started a long series of lawsuits, which eventually ended when IBM bought the patent outright from Wang for US$ 500,000 . Wang used the funds to greatly expand Wang Laboratories , which he had co-founded with Dr. Ge-Yao Chu,
9261-404: The ability to stay highly magnetized, and a low coercivity so that less energy is required to change the magnetization direction. The core can take two states, encoding one bit . The core memory contents are retained even when the memory system is powered down ( non-volatile memory ). However, when the core is read, it is reset to a "zero" value. Circuits in the computer memory system then restore
9408-880: The above titles, and those who work in a web environment often prefix their titles with Web . The term programmer can be used to refer to a software developer , software engineer, computer scientist , or software analyst . However, members of these professions typically possess other software engineering skills, beyond programming. The computer industry is made up of businesses involved in developing computer software, designing computer hardware and computer networking infrastructures, manufacturing computer components, and providing information technology services, including system administration and maintenance. The software industry includes businesses engaged in development , maintenance , and publication of software. The industry also includes software services , such as training , documentation , and consulting. Computer engineering
9555-509: The angles of the various joints were stored during a teaching phase and replayed in operation. They were accurate to within 1/10,000 of an inch (note: although accuracy is not an appropriate measure for robots, usually evaluated in terms of repeatability - see later). Unimation later licensed their technology to Kawasaki Heavy Industries and GKN , manufacturing Unimates in Japan and England respectively. For some time, Unimation's only competitor
9702-480: The articulated arms a wide range of movements. An autonomous robot is a robot that acts without recourse to human control. The first autonomous robots environment were known as Elmer and Elsie , which were constructed in the late 1940s by W. Grey Walter . They were the first robots in history that were programmed to "think" the way biological brains do and meant to have free will. Elmer and Elsie were often labeled as tortoises because of how they were shaped and
9849-506: The chain. Wang and Woo were working at Harvard University 's Computation Laboratory at the time, and the university was not interested in promoting inventions created in their labs. Wang was able to patent the system on his own. The MIT Project Whirlwind computer required a fast memory system for real-time aircraft tracking. At first, an array of Williams tubes —a storage system based on cathode-ray tubes —was used, but proved temperamental and unreliable. Several researchers in
9996-457: The challenges in implementing computations. For example, programming language theory studies approaches to the description of computations, while the study of computer programming investigates the use of programming languages and complex systems . The field of human–computer interaction focuses on the challenges in making computers and computations useful, usable, and universally accessible to humans. The field of cybersecurity pertains to
10143-477: The circuitry assumes there has been a read operation and the bit is in the 0 state. The Sense wire is used only during the read, and the Inhibit wire is used only during the write. For this reason, later core systems combined the two into a single wire, and used circuitry in the memory controller to switch the function of the wire. However, when Sense wire crosses too many cores, the half select current can also induce
10290-442: The combined magnetic field generated where the X and Y lines cross (the logical conjunction ) is sufficient to change the state; other cores will see only half the needed field ("half-selected"), or none at all. By driving the current through the wires in a particular direction, the resulting induced field forces the selected core's magnetic flux to circulate in one direction or the other (clockwise or counterclockwise). One direction
10437-560: The computer and its system software, or may be published separately. Some users are satisfied with the bundled apps and need never install additional applications. The system software manages the hardware and serves the application, which in turn serves the user. Application software applies the power of a particular computing platform or system software to a particular purpose. Some apps, such as Microsoft Office , are developed in multiple versions for several different platforms; others have narrower requirements and are generally referred to by
10584-620: The computing power to do the necessary calculations, such in molecular modeling . Large molecules and their reactions are far too complex for traditional computers to calculate, but the computational power of quantum computers could provide a tool to perform such calculations. Industrial robot Typical applications of robots include welding , painting, assembly, disassembly , pick and place for printed circuit boards , packaging and labeling , palletizing , product inspection, and testing; all accomplished with high endurance, speed, and precision. They can assist in material handling . In
10731-502: The cores to guide the wires. Use of this machine reduced the time taken to thread the straight X and Y select lines from 25 hours to 12 minutes on a 128 by 128 core array. Smaller cores made the use of hollow needles impractical, but there were numerous advances in semi-automatic core threading. Support nests with guide channels were developed. Cores were permanently bonded to a backing sheet "patch" that supported them during manufacture and later use. Threading needles were butt welded to
10878-418: The cost of core fell to the point that it became nearly universal as main memory , replacing both inexpensive low-performance drum memory and costly high-performance systems using vacuum tubes , and later discrete transistors as memory. The cost of core memory declined sharply over the lifetime of the technology: costs began at roughly US$ 1.00 per bit and dropped to roughly US$ 0.01 per bit. Core memory
11025-560: The day. Computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery . It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, engineering, mathematical, technological, and social aspects. Major computing disciplines include computer engineering , computer science , cybersecurity , data science , information systems , information technology , and software engineering . The term computing
11172-448: The design of individual microprocessors , personal computers, and supercomputers , to circuit design . This field of engineering includes not only the design of hardware within its own domain, but also the interactions between hardware and the context in which it operates. Software engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, and quantifiable approach to the design, development, operation, and maintenance of software, and
11319-414: The development of quantum algorithms . Potential infrastructure for future technologies includes DNA origami on photolithography and quantum antennae for transferring information between ion traps. By 2011, researchers had entangled 14 qubits . Fast digital circuits , including those based on Josephson junctions and rapid single flux quantum technology, are becoming more nearly realizable with
11466-502: The direction, acceleration, velocity, deceleration, and distance of a series of coordinated motions Other robots are much more flexible as to the orientation of the object on which they are operating or even the task that has to be performed on the object itself, which the robot may even need to identify. For example, for more precise guidance, robots often contain machine vision sub-systems acting as their visual sensors, linked to powerful computers or controllers. Artificial intelligence
11613-437: The discovery of nanoscale superconductors . Fiber-optic and photonic (optical) devices, which already have been used to transport data over long distances, are starting to be used by data centers, along with CPU and semiconductor memory components. This allows the separation of RAM from CPU by optical interconnects. IBM has created an integrated circuit with both electronic and optical information processing in one chip. This
11760-420: The distance between axes 1 and 4. This is called a shoulder singularity. Some robot manufacturers also mention alignment singularities, where axes 1 and 6 become coincident. This is simply a sub-case of shoulder singularities. When the robot passes close to a shoulder singularity, joint 1 spins very fast. The third and last type of singularity in wrist-partitioned vertically articulated six-axis robots occurs when
11907-434: The early 1970s, and by the mid-70s it was down to 600 ns (0.6 μs). Some designs had substantially higher performance: the CDC 6600 had a memory cycle time of 1.0 μs in 1964, using cores that required a half-select current of 200 mA. Everything possible was done in order to decrease access times and increase data rates (bandwidth), including the simultaneous use of multiple grids of core, each storing one bit of
12054-412: The elimination of these diagonal wires, tighter packing was possible. The access time plus the time to rewrite is the memory cycle time . To read a bit of core memory, the circuitry tries to flip the bit to the polarity assigned to the 0 state, by driving the selected X and Y lines that intersect at that core. The detection of such a pulse means that the bit had most recently contained a 1. Absence of
12201-686: The emphasis between technical and organizational issues varies among programs. For example, programs differ substantially in the amount of programming required." The study of IS bridges business and computer science , using the theoretical foundations of information and computation to study various business models and related algorithmic processes within a computer science discipline. The field of Computer Information Systems (CIS) studies computers and algorithmic processes, including their principles, their software and hardware designs, their applications, and their impact on society while IS emphasizes functionality over design. Information technology (IT)
12348-644: The engineering paradigm. The generally accepted concepts of Software Engineering as an engineering discipline have been specified in the Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK). The SWEBOK has become an internationally accepted standard in ISO/IEC TR 19759:2015. Computer science or computing science (abbreviated CS or Comp Sci) is the scientific and practical approach to computation and its applications. A computer scientist specializes in
12495-399: The ferrite material used to make the toroids. An electric current in a wire that passes through a core creates a magnetic field. Only a magnetic field greater than a certain intensity ("select") can cause the core to change its magnetic polarity. To select a memory location, one of the X and one of the Y lines are driven with half the current ("half-select") required to cause this change. Only
12642-434: The field of computer hardware. Computer software, or just software , is a collection of computer programs and related data, which provides instructions to a computer. Software refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of the computer. It is a set of programs, procedures, algorithms, as well as its documentation concerned with the operation of a data processing system. Program software performs
12789-625: The first robots to have been used in industrial applications. They are commonly used for machine tending in die-casting, plastic injection and extrusion, and for welding. SCARA is an acronym for Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm. SCARA robots are recognized by their two parallel joints which provide movement in the X-Y plane. Rotating shafts are positioned vertically at the effector. SCARA robots are used for jobs that require precise lateral movements. They are ideal for assembly applications. Delta robots are also referred to as parallel link robots. They consist of parallel links connected to
12936-442: The first silicon dioxide field effect transistors at Bell Labs, the first transistors in which drain and source were adjacent at the surface. Subsequently, a team demonstrated a working MOSFET at Bell Labs 1960. The MOSFET made it possible to build high-density integrated circuits , leading to what is known as the computer revolution or microcomputer revolution . A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to
13083-511: The first working transistor , the point-contact transistor , in 1947. In 1953, the University of Manchester built the first transistorized computer , the Manchester Baby . However, early junction transistors were relatively bulky devices that were difficult to mass-produce, which limited them to a number of specialised applications. In 1957, Frosch and Derick were able to manufacture
13230-431: The follow-on core memory systems built by DEC for their PDP line of air-cooled computers. Another method of handling the temperature sensitivity was to enclose the magnetic core "stack" in a temperature controlled oven. Examples of this are the heated-air core memory of the IBM 1620 (which could take up to 30 minutes to reach operating temperature , about 106 °F (41 °C) and the heated-oil-bath core memory of
13377-436: The following: Define points P1–P5: Define program: For examples of how this would look in popular robot languages see industrial robot programming . The American National Standard for Industrial Robots and Robot Systems — Safety Requirements (ANSI/RIA R15.06-1999) defines a singularity as "a condition caused by the collinear alignment of two or more robot axes resulting in unpredictable robot motion and velocities." It
13524-429: The full current is applied to one or more word read lines; this clears the selected cores and any that flip induce voltage pulses in their bit sense/write lines. For read, normally only one word read line would be selected; but for clear, multiple word read lines could be selected while the bit sense/write lines ignored. To write words, the half current is applied to one or more word write lines, and half current
13671-494: The information in an immediate re-write cycle. The most common form of core memory, X/Y line coincident-current , used for the main memory of a computer, consists of a large number of small toroidal ferrimagnetic ceramic ferrites ( cores ) held together in a grid structure (organized as a "stack" of layers called planes ), with wires woven through the holes in the cores' centers. In early systems there were four wires: X , Y , Sense , and Inhibit , but later cores combined
13818-419: The late 1940s conceived the idea of using magnetic cores for computer memory, but MIT computer engineer Jay Forrester received the principal patent for his invention of the coincident-current core memory that enabled the 3D storage of information. William Papian of Project Whirlwind cited one of these efforts, Harvard's "Static Magnetic Delay Line", in an internal memo. The first core memory of 32 × 32 × 16 bits
13965-487: The late 1970s and many US companies entered the field, including large firms like General Electric , and General Motors (which formed joint venture FANUC Robotics with FANUC LTD of Japan). U.S. startup companies included Automatix and Adept Technology , Inc. At the height of the robot boom in 1984, Unimation was acquired by Westinghouse Electric Corporation for 107 million U.S. dollars. Westinghouse sold Unimation to Stäubli Faverges SCA of France in 1988, which
14112-403: The latter two wires into one Sense/Inhibit line. Each toroid stored one bit (0 or 1). One bit in each plane could be accessed in one cycle, so each machine word in an array of words was spread over a "stack" of planes. Each plane would manipulate one bit of a word in parallel , allowing the full word to be read or written in one cycle. Core relies on the square hysteresis loop properties of
14259-541: The main memory can fit are likewise called out-of-core algorithms . Algorithms which only work inside the main memory are sometimes called in-core algorithms. The basic concept of using the square hysteresis loop of certain magnetic materials as a storage or switching device was known from the earliest days of computer development. Much of this knowledge had developed due to an understanding of transformers , which allowed amplification and switch-like performance when built using certain materials. The stable switching behavior
14406-447: The manner in which they moved. They were capable of phototaxis which is the movement that occurs in response to light stimulus. Cartesian robots, also called rectilinear, gantry robots, and x-y-z robots have three prismatic joints for the movement of the tool and three rotary joints for its orientation in space. To be able to move and orient the effector organ in all directions, such a robot needs 6 axes (or degrees of freedom). In
14553-603: The market in 1973. ABB Robotics (formerly ASEA) introduced IRB 6, among the world's first commercially available all electric micro-processor controlled robot. The first two IRB 6 robots were sold to Magnusson in Sweden for grinding and polishing pipe bends and were installed in production in January 1974. Also in 1973 KUKA Robotics built its first robot, known as FAMULUS , also one of the first articulated robots to have six electromechanically driven axes. Interest in robotics increased in
14700-436: The motion subspace of the 3 DoF Delta robot and the 3 orientation coordinates are in the constraint subspace. The motion subspace of lower mobility manipulators may be further decomposed into independent (desired) and dependent (concomitant) subspaces: consisting of 'concomitant' or 'parasitic' motion which is undesired motion of the manipulator. The debilitating effects of concomitant motion should be mitigated or eliminated in
14847-418: The next transformer pair. Those that did not contain a value simply faded out. Stored values were thus moved bit by bit down the chain with every pulse. Values were read out at the end, and fed back into the start of the chain to keep the values continually cycling through the system. Such systems have the disadvantage of not being random-access, to read any particular value one has to wait for it to cycle through
14994-779: The operator control panel. The teach pendant or PC is usually disconnected after programming and the robot then runs on the program that has been installed in its controller . However a computer is often used to 'supervise' the robot and any peripherals, or to provide additional storage for access to numerous complex paths and routines. The most essential robot peripheral is the end effector , or end-of-arm-tooling (EOAT). Common examples of end effectors include welding devices (such as MIG-welding guns, spot-welders, etc.), spray guns and also grinding and deburring devices (such as pneumatic disk or belt grinders, burrs, etc.), and grippers (devices that can grasp an object, usually electromechanical or pneumatic ). Other common means of picking up objects
15141-498: The operator control panel. The operator can switch from program to program, make adjustments within a program and also operate a host of peripheral devices that may be integrated within the same robotic system. These include end effectors , feeders that supply components to the robot, conveyor belts , emergency stop controls, machine vision systems, safety interlock systems, barcode printers and an almost infinite array of other industrial devices which are accessed and controlled via
15288-437: The orientation of the end effector. Another common term for this singularity is a "wrist flip". The result of a singularity can be quite dramatic and can have adverse effects on the robot arm, the end effector, and the process. Some industrial robot manufacturers have attempted to side-step the situation by slightly altering the robot's path to prevent this condition. Another method is to slow the robot's travel speed, thus reducing
15435-460: The owner of these resources and the end user. It is typically offered as a service, making it an example of Software as a Service , Platforms as a Service , and Infrastructure as a Service , depending on the functionality offered. Key characteristics include on-demand access, broad network access, and the capability of rapid scaling. It allows individual users or small business to benefit from economies of scale . One area of interest in this field
15582-480: The platform they run on. For example, a geography application for Windows or an Android application for education or Linux gaming . Applications that run only on one platform and increase the desirability of that platform due to the popularity of the application, known as killer applications . A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow
15729-727: The potential use of the robot to more sophisticated applications such as assembly and welding. Scheinman then designed a second arm for the MIT AI Lab, called the "MIT arm." Scheinman, after receiving a fellowship from Unimation to develop his designs, sold those designs to Unimation who further developed them with support from General Motors and later marketed it as the Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly (PUMA). Industrial robotics took off quite quickly in Europe, with both ABB Robotics and KUKA Robotics bringing robots to
15876-421: The procedure to get the screw from the feeder to the hole must be programmed along with any I/O involved, for example a signal to indicate when the screw is in the feeder ready to be picked up. The purpose of the robot software is to facilitate both these programming tasks. Teaching the robot positions may be achieved a number of ways: Positional commands The robot can be directed to the required position using
16023-415: The process simulated. A robotics simulator is used to create embedded applications for a robot, without depending on the physical operation of the robot arm and end effector. The advantages of robotics simulation is that it saves time in the design of robotics applications. It can also increase the level of safety associated with robotic equipment since various "what if" scenarios can be tried and tested before
16170-405: The proper half-select current at one temperature is not the proper half-select current at another temperature. So a memory controller would include a temperature sensor (typically a thermistor ) to adjust the current levels correctly for temperature changes. An example of this is the core memory used by Digital Equipment Corporation for their PDP-1 computer; this strategy continued through all of
16317-522: The protection of computer systems and networks. This includes information and data privacy , preventing disruption of IT services and prevention of theft of and damage to hardware, software, and data. Data science is a field that uses scientific and computing tools to extract information and insights from data, driven by the increasing volume and availability of data. Data mining , big data , statistics, machine learning and deep learning are all interwoven with data science. Information systems (IS)
16464-401: The pulse means that the bit had contained a 0. The delay in sensing the voltage pulse is called the access time of the core memory. Following any such read, the bit contains a 0. This illustrates why a core memory access is called a destructive read : Any operation that reads the contents of a core erases those contents, and they must immediately be recreated. To write a bit of core memory,
16611-426: The required positions and/or along a required path while the software logs these positions into memory. The program can later run the robot to these positions or along the taught path. This technique is popular for tasks such as paint spraying . Offline programming is where the entire cell, the robot and all the machines or instruments in the workspace are mapped graphically. The robot can then be moved on screen and
16758-399: The robot are the angles of each of the joints or displacements of the linear axes (or combinations of the two for robot formats such as SCARA). However, there are many different ways to define the points. The most common and most convenient way of defining a point is to specify a Cartesian coordinate for it, i.e. the position of the 'end effector' in mm in the X, Y and Z directions relative to
16905-406: The robot could be much more accurate and repeatable at light loads and speeds. Repeatability in an industrial process is also subject to the accuracy of the end effector, for example a gripper, and even to the design of the 'fingers' that match the gripper to the object being grasped. For example, if a robot picks a screw by its head, the screw could be at a random angle. A subsequent attempt to insert
17052-465: The robot's origin. In addition, depending on the types of joints a particular robot may have, the orientation of the end effector in yaw, pitch, and roll and the location of the tool point relative to the robot's faceplate must also be specified. For a jointed arm these coordinates must be converted to joint angles by the robot controller and such conversions are known as Cartesian Transformations which may need to be performed iteratively or recursively for
17199-596: The rules and data formats for exchanging information in a computer network, and provide the basis for network programming . One well-known communications protocol is Ethernet , a hardware and link layer standard that is ubiquitous in local area networks . Another common protocol is the Internet Protocol Suite , which defines a set of protocols for internetworking, i.e. for data communication between multiple networks, host-to-host data transfer, and application-specific data transmission formats. Computer networking
17346-436: The same period from around 0.1 inches (2.5 mm) diameter in the 1950s to 0.013 inches (0.33 mm) in 1966. The power required to flip the magnetization of one core is proportional to the volume, so this represents a drop in power consumption by a factor of 125. The cost of complete core memory systems was dominated by the cost of stringing the wires through the cores. Forrester's coincident-current system required one of
17493-404: The screw into a hole could easily fail. These and similar scenarios can be improved with 'lead-ins' e.g. by making the entrance to the hole tapered. The setup or programming of motions and sequences for an industrial robot is typically taught by linking the robot controller to a laptop , desktop computer or (internal or Internet) network . A robot and a collection of machines or peripherals
17640-454: The sharing of resources and information. When at least one process in one device is able to send or receive data to or from at least one process residing in a remote device, the two devices are said to be in a network. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics such as the medium used to transport the data, communications protocol used, scale, topology , and organizational scope. Communications protocols define
17787-406: The speed required for the wrist to make the transition. The ANSI/RIA has mandated that robot manufacturers shall make the user aware of singularities if they occur while the system is being manually manipulated. A second type of singularity in wrist-partitioned vertically articulated six-axis robots occurs when the wrist center lies on a cylinder that is centered about axis 1 and with radius equal to
17934-442: The study of these approaches. That is, the application of engineering to software. It is the act of using insights to conceive, model and scale a solution to a problem. The first reference to the term is the 1968 NATO Software Engineering Conference , and was intended to provoke thought regarding the perceived software crisis at the time. Software development , a widely used and more generic term, does not necessarily subsume
18081-479: The successful design of lower mobility manipulators. For example, the Delta robot does not have parasitic motion since its end effector does not rotate. Robots exhibit varying degrees of autonomy . Some robots are programmed to faithfully carry out specific actions over and over again (repetitive actions) without variation and with a high degree of accuracy. These actions are determined by programmed routines that specify
18228-403: The system is activated.[8] Robot simulation software provides a platform to teach, test, run, and debug programs that have been written in a variety of programming languages. Robot simulation tools allow for robotics programs to be conveniently written and debugged off-line with the final version of the program tested on an actual robot. The ability to preview the behavior of a robotic system in
18375-446: The theory of computation and the design of computational systems. Its subfields can be divided into practical techniques for its implementation and application in computer systems , and purely theoretical areas. Some, such as computational complexity theory , which studies fundamental properties of computational problems , are highly abstract, while others, such as computer graphics , emphasize real-world applications. Others focus on
18522-425: The value and a second used for control. A signal generator produced a series of pulses which were sent into the control transformers at half the energy needed to flip the polarity. The pulses were timed so the field in the transformers had not faded away before the next pulse arrived. If the storage transformer's field matched the field created by the pulse, then the total energy would cause a pulse to be injected into
18669-449: The value with a read-write cycle, incrementing (or decrementing) the value in some processor register, and then writing the new value with another read-write cycle. Word line core memory was often used to provide register memory. Other names for this type are linear select and 2-D . This form of core memory typically wove three wires through each core on the plane, word read , word write , and bit sense/write . To read or clear words,
18816-411: The wires to be run at 45 degrees to the cores, which proved difficult to wire by machine, so that core arrays had to be assembled under microscopes by workers with fine motor control. In 1956, a group at IBM filed for a patent on a machine to automatically thread the first few wires through each core. This machine held the full plane of cores in a "nest" and then pushed an array of hollow needles through
18963-408: The wires, the needle and wire diameters were the same, and efforts were made to eliminate the use of needles. The most important change, from the point of view of automation, was the combination of the sense and inhibit wires, eliminating the need for a circuitous diagonal sense wire. With small changes in layout, this also allowed much tighter packing of the cores in each patch. By the early 1960s,
19110-580: The wrist's center lies in the same plane as axes 2 and 3. Singularities are closely related to the phenomena of gimbal lock , which has a similar root cause of axes becoming lined up. According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) study World Robotics 2024 , there were about 4,281,585 operational industrial robots by the end of 2023. For the year 2018 the IFR estimates the worldwide sales of industrial robots with US$ 16.5 billion. Including
19257-412: The year 2023, an estimated 4,281,585 industrial robots were in operation worldwide according to International Federation of Robotics (IFR) . There are six types of industrial robots. Articulated robots are the most common industrial robots. They look like a human arm , which is why they are also called robotic arm or manipulator arm . Their articulations with several degrees of freedom allow
19404-452: Was Cincinnati Milacron Inc. of Ohio . This changed radically in the late 1970s when several big Japanese conglomerates began producing similar industrial robots. In 1969 Victor Scheinman at Stanford University invented the Stanford arm , an all-electric, 6-axis articulated robot designed to permit an arm solution . This allowed it accurately to follow arbitrary paths in space and widened
19551-459: Was 2.75 μs. In 1980, the price of a 16 kW ( kiloword , equivalent to 32 kB) core memory board that fitted into a DEC Q-bus computer was around US$ 3,000 . At that time, core array and supporting electronics can fit on a single printed circuit board about 25 cm × 20 cm (10 in × 8 in) in size, the core array was mounted a few mm above the PCB and was protected with
19698-420: Was achieved using punched paper tape to energise solenoids, which would facilitate the movement of the crane's control levers. The robot could stack wooden blocks in pre-programmed patterns. The number of motor revolutions required for each desired movement was first plotted on graph paper. This information was then transferred to the paper tape, which was also driven by the robot's single motor. Chris Shute built
19845-461: Was actually stored magnetically within the individual cores. Each bit of the word had one core. Reading the contents of a given memory address generated a pulse of current in a wire corresponding to that address. Each address wire was threaded either through a core to signify a binary [1], or around the outside of that core, to signify a binary [0]. As expected, the cores were much larger physically than those of read-write core memory. This type of memory
19992-446: Was almost always carried out by hand in spite of repeated major efforts to automate the process. Core was almost universal until the introduction of the first semiconductor memory chips in the late 1960s, and especially dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) in the early 1970s. Initially around the same price as core, DRAM was smaller and simpler to use. Core was driven from the market gradually between 1973 and 1978. Although core memory
20139-602: Was exceptionally reliable. An example was the Apollo Guidance Computer used for the NASA Moon landings. The performance of early core memories can be characterized in today's terms as being very roughly comparable to a clock rate of 1 MHz (equivalent to early 1980s home computers, like the Apple II and Commodore 64 ). Early core memory systems had cycle times of about 6 μs , which had fallen to 1.2 μs by
20286-448: Was expensive and complicated. As I recall, which may not be entirely correct, it used two cores per binary bit and was essentially a delay line that moved a bit forward. To the extent that I may have focused on it, the approach was not suitable for our purposes." He describes the invention and associated events, in 1975. Forrester has since observed, "It took us about seven years to convince the industry that random-access magnetic-core memory
20433-425: Was further refined via 5 additional patents and ultimately used in the first industrial robot . Frederick Viehe applied for various patents on the use of transformers for building digital logic circuits in place of relay logic beginning in 1947. A fully developed core system was patented in 1947, and later purchased by IBM in 1956. This development was little-known, however, and the mainstream development of core
20580-558: Was installed on Whirlwind in the summer of 1953. Papian stated: "Magnetic-Core Storage has two big advantages: (1) greater reliability with a consequent reduction in maintenance time devoted to storage; (2) shorter access time (core access time is 9 microseconds: tube access time is approximately 25 microseconds) thus increasing the speed of computer operation." In April 2011, Forrester recalled, "the Wang use of cores did not have any influence on my development of random-access memory. The Wang memory
20727-608: Was made obsolete by semiconductor integrated circuit memories in the 1970s, though remained in use for mission-critical and high-reliability applications in the IBM System/4 Pi AP-101 (used in the Space Shuttle until an upgrade in early 1990s, and the B-52 and B-1B bombers). An example of the scale, economics, and technology of core memory in the 1960s was the 256K 36-bit word (1.2 MiB ) core memory unit installed on
20874-479: Was tested ("strobed"). The data plot of this test seemed to resemble a cartoon character called " Shmoo ," and the name stuck. In many occasions, errors could be resolved by gently tapping the printed circuit board with the core array on a table. This slightly changed the positions of the cores along the wires running through them, and could fix the problem. The procedure was seldom needed, as core memory proved to be very reliable compared to other computer components of
21021-488: Was the 1931 paper "The Use of Thyratrons for High Speed Automatic Counting of Physical Phenomena" by C. E. Wynn-Williams . Claude Shannon 's 1938 paper " A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits " then introduced the idea of using electronics for Boolean algebraic operations. The concept of a field-effect transistor was proposed by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925. John Bardeen and Walter Brattain , while working under William Shockley at Bell Labs , built
21168-421: Was the solution to a missing link in computer technology. Then we spent the following seven years in the patent courts convincing them that they had not all thought of it first." A third developer involved in the early development of core was Jan A. Rajchman at RCA . A prolific inventor, Rajchman designed a unique core system using ferrite bands wrapped around thin metal tubes, building his first examples using
21315-571: Was used in peripherals of the ENIAC in 1953, the IBM 702 delivered in July 1955, and later in the 702 itself. The IBM 704 (1954) and the Ferranti Mercury (1957) used magnetic-core memory. It was during the early 1950s that Seeburg Corporation developed one of the first commercial applications of coincident-current core memory storage in the "Tormat" memory of its new range of jukeboxes , starting with
21462-463: Was well known in the electrical engineering field, and its application in computer systems was immediate. For example, J. Presper Eckert and Jeffrey Chuan Chu had done some development work on the concept in 1945 at the Moore School during the ENIAC efforts. Robotics pioneer George Devol filed a patent for the first static (non-moving) magnetic memory on 3 April 1946. Devol's magnetic memory
21609-548: Was wired, core memory could be exceptionally reliable. Read-only core rope memory , for example, was used on the mission-critical Apollo Guidance Computer essential to NASA 's successful Moon landings. Using smaller cores and wires, the memory density of core slowly increased. By the late 1960s a density of about 32 kilobits per cubic foot (about 0.9 kilobits per litre) was typical. The cost declined over this period from about $ 1 per bit to about 1 cent per bit. Reaching this density requires extremely careful manufacturing, which
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