this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
21 points (100.0% liked)
retrocomputing
4122 readers
1 users here now
Discussions on vintage and retrocomputing
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Uh, do you mean you know how to design them and send them somewhere to be made, or do you actually make them yourself? I thought you needed a crazy manufacturing plant for that.
As for making bubble memory, have you considered the material requirements? It looks like bubble memory used gadolinium gallium garnet, or yttrium iron garnet. Additionally, it sounds like bubble memory is significantly more complex than you'd think because while there aren't any mechanical components, it sounds like there are moving components.
Sam Zeloof has made chips in his garage and posted a whole series about it on Youtube. He bought his silicon wafers, he didn't grow them, and his machines do take up the whole garage - but he did the whole thing himself. Fascinating viewing IMO. I don't know anything about where one would get these garnetty materials you mention, though.
So, I'm still doing research, but it seems like any ferrimagnetic thin film should work.
Rare earths would have been in lower demand at the time I think, some garnets have useful magnetic properties, and growing garnets is relatively easy. Similar synthetic crystals are common as lasing mediums now.