Minimum tech level to invent core memory

Magnetic core memory was a critical innovation in the development of computers. Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic-core_memory it was the most advanced form of memory from about the mid-fifties to early seventies.

For development of a semi-steampunk setting, I'm thinking about how much earlier it could've been developed. (Setting is otherwise largely similar to our own world in relevant aspects of history, geography, economics etc. I'm just trying to figure a way for it to have early computers powered by e.g. electromechanical relays.)

What are the prerequisites? Clearly it needs electricity and a fair degree of proficiency in processing electrical signals, as well as the ability to mass produce identical parts. What other difficulties are there? Could a well-equipped R&D group that stumbled onto the right path, develop practical core memory at the 1900 tech level, say?

posted over 5 years ago

rwallace‭

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