core memory

1KB core memory module (1961)

core memory closeup

diagram of a single core memory element

• (sense 1): From being a type of computer memory consisting of magnetic cores.
• (sense 2): Popularized by the 2015 Pixar film Inside Out, in which the character Riley has five "core memories", each forming the foundation of a "personality island" which represents an aspect of Riley's personality.

core memory (countable and uncountable, plural core memories)

1. (computing, historical, countable, uncountable) A type of non-volatile random-access rewritable electronic memory using ferrite cores to magnetically store binary digits (bits).

   Synonyms: core, magnetic core memory, ferrite core memory

   • 2014, Subrata Dasgupta, It Began with Babbage, Oxford University Press, →ISBN:

     Wilkes, on his visit to America in summer and fall 1950 had witnessed the core memory being implemented on the Whirlwind at MIT—and as in the case of seeing the control matrix in the same machine, this made a strong impression on him.

2. (countable, informal) A memory, especially one formed in childhood, which recalls a deeply significant event in one's life and can be remembered years later.

   My high school graduation is a core memory.

   • 1975, David Binder, “Who Is Willy Brandt?”, in The Other German: Willy Brandt’s Life & Times, Washington, D.C.: The New Republic Book Company, Inc., →ISBN, pages 16–17:

     Grandfather Frahm told young Herbert how his father had been held over a trestle and whipped repeatedly for disobedience, as if serfdom persisted. That had made a lasting imprint on Ludwig Frahm, and the recounting of it made an indelible impression on the grandson, who tells it as one of the core memories of his Lübeck childhood.

   • 1995, Robert Atkinson, “Giving Yourself Your Own Story: Writing Autobiographically”, in The Gift of Stories: Practical and Spiritual Applications of Autobiography, Life Stories, and Personal Mythmaking, Westport, Conn.; London: Bergin & Garvey, →ISBN, section II (The Gift of Stories), page 58:

     Our real, inner, deep feelings are our own best teachers about who we really are. We may most often find these in our memories of childhood. It is there that many of our most deeply felt, core experiences lie. These and other memories of our most meaningful moments since childhood will be the fuel for the most powerful, moving writing we will ever do. Writing about these core memories takes us right back to those feelings we had then as well as how we are feeling about them now.

   • 2003, Floyd Skloot, “Counteracting the Powers of Darkness”, in In the Shadow of Memory (American Lives), Lincoln, Neb.; London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, part 3 (A Measure of Acceptance), page 173:

     My core memories of childhood contain nothing but concrete, brick, cement, steel. Brooklyn is surrounded by the water, jutting into the Atlantic at Coney Island, bordered by the Upper and Lower New York Bays to the west and Jamaica Bay to the east, separated from Manhattan by the East River. Brooklyn had beaches, which had sand, which got tracked into houses laden with vileness. No, for us the borough was so densely urban that the notion of “land” or “sea” never arose. Earth was the name of the planet, not the surface of the world; soil, like dirt, was a bad thing.

   • 2006, Denis Ledoux, Turning Memories Into Memoirs: A Handbook for Writing Lifestories, 3rd edition, Lisbon Falls, Me.: Soleil Press, →ISBN, page 43:

     If life teaches us anything, it’s that we don’t have inexhaustible energy and time. It is perfectly possible to run out of both before we get all our stories written. With this in mind, because you have compiled the Core Memory List, you can identify your most important lifestories—the ones about the prime relationships and events of your life—and concentrate on writing these first. These few core memories serve well as the backbone of your longer lifewriting project. The peripheral stories can be dealt with later—as time and energy permit.

   • 2014 January 18, Angela Quinton (@aquinton), Twitter‎, archived from the original on 10 October 2024:

     One of my core memories is a boat trip with Matt, Simon, Rob & friends on Harrison Lake. Some part of that sunrise shore is still in me.

   • 2014 July 4, Chris Chance! Brown, Looking for work! (@chance_second), Twitter‎, archived from the original on 10 October 2024:

     @Sleestak @parva_x @heythisisbrian I don't know how it happened or why it happened, but that is like a core memory of my childhood