21 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
21 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
|
||
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>write-only memory</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../W.html" title="W"/><link rel="previous" href="write-only-language.html" title="write-only language"/><link rel="next" href="Wrong-Thing.html" title="Wrong Thing"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">write-only memory</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="write-only-language.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">W</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="Wrong-Thing.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="write-only-memory"/><dt xmlns="" id="write-only-memory"><b>write-only memory</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> The obvious antonym to <span class="firstterm">read-only
|
||
memory</span>. 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 <a href="../M/management.html"><i class="glossterm">management</i></a> 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 <i class="citetitle">Electronics</i> magazine's April
|
||
issue and used the spec as an April Fools' Day joke. Instead of the more
|
||
conventional characteristic curves, the 25120 “<span class="quote">fully encoded, 9046 x
|
||
N, Random Access, write-only-memory</span>” data sheet included diagrams of
|
||
“<span class="quote">bit capacity vs.: Temp.</span>”, “<span class="quote">Iff vs. Vff</span>”,
|
||
“<span class="quote">Number of pins remaining vs.: number of socket insertions</span>”,
|
||
and “<span class="quote">AQL vs.: selling price</span>”. The 25120 required a 6.3 VAC
|
||
VFF supply, a +10V VCC, and VDD of 0V,
|
||
<tt class="literal">±2%</tt>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="write-only-language.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../W.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="Wrong-Thing.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">write-only language </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Wrong Thing</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
|