Jay Forrester Filed the First Practical Computer RAM Patent 75 Years Ago

Jay Forrester filed a patent for coincident-current magnetic core memory on May 11, 1951. The patent was granted as U.S. Patent 2736880 in February 1956. This technology is considered the first practical computer RAM.

First prototype built in 1950

The first prototype of magnetic core memory was built by William Papian in October 1950. The first full core memory bank was installed in the Whirlwind computer on August 8, 1953. The memory capacity of the early system was 2Kb.

IBM later settled a patent dispute over magnetic core memory for $13 million in 1964.

Tom's Hardware reported on the 75th anniversary of the patent filing. The exact details of the patent's impact on modern memory technology remain part of computing history.