core store

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core store A type of nonvolatile memory in which binary information is stored in an array of toroidal magnetic cores. The cores are made of a ferrite material that has two stable magnetic states and can be switched from one to the other by imposing a sufficient magnetic flux; the flux is generated by electric currents in conductors threaded through the cores. The principle of the core store was discovered in 1949 by J. W. Forrester of MIT. Although widely used as main storage for processors from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s, core store has been displaced in modern processor design by semiconductor memory.