write-only memory

n. The obvious antonym to read-only memory. Out of frustration with the long
and seemingly useless chain of approvals required of component
specifications, during which no actual checking seemed to occur, an engineer
at Signetics once created a specification for a write-only memory and
included it with a bunch of other specifications to be approved. This
inclusion came to the attention of Signetics management only when regular
customers started calling and asking for pricing information. Signetics
published a corrected edition of the data book and requested the return of
the erroneous ones. Later, in 1972, Signetics bought a double-page spread in
Electronics magazine's April issue and used the spec as an April Fools' Day
joke. Instead of the more conventional characteristic curves, the 25120
fully encoded, 9046 x N, Random Access, write-only-memory data sheet
included diagrams of bit capacity vs.: Temp. , Iff vs. Vff , Number of pins
remaining vs.: number of socket insertions , and AQL vs.: selling price. The
25120 required a 6.3 VAC VFF supply, a +10V VCC, and VDD of 0V, 2%.

