Delay-line memory is a form of computer memory, mostly obsolete, that was used on some of the earliest digital computers, and is reappearing in the form of optical delay lines. Like many modern forms of electronic computer memory, delay-line memory was a refreshable memory, but as opposed to modern random-access memory, delay-line memory was sequential-access.
Analog delay line technology had been used since the 1920s to delay the propagation of analog signals. When a delay line is used as a memory device, an amplifier and a pulse shaper are connected between the output of the delay line and the input. These devices recirculate the signals from the output back into the input, creating a loop that maintains the signal as long as power is applied. The shaper ensures the pulses remain well-formed, removing any degradation due to losses in the medium.
The memory capacity equals the time to transmit one bit divided by the recirculation time. Early delay-line memory systems had capacities of a few thousand bits (although the term "bit" was not in popular use at the time), with recirculation times measured in microseconds. To read or write a particular memory address...
Kit Rhett Aultman
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