Memory Chips - The Early Intel Memory Chips

About this Artwork This artwork is a mixed media display celebrating Intel's most important memory chips the 3101, 1101, and 1103. Intel created the world's first solid-state memory chips. Prior to the 3101, computer memory was primarily based on a technology called magnetic core memory. Core memory consisted of wire matrices with tiny iron doughnuts that could be magnetized. Solid-state memory used miniature semiconductor transistors in place of the bulky magnetic cores. Solid-state memory brought greater speed, less maintenance, less bulk, and less heat to computers. The only downside to solid-state memory is that the bits were lost when power was turned off. Both core and solid-state memory were called random access memory because any bit could be selected to read or write.This artwork includes 5 major items. It has a large image of an Intel 1101 chip. On the back are the artist’s signature and a narrative describing the artwork and the 3101, 1101, and 1103. Also, the artwork includ