Information Storage
Early computers used to store information in copper wires woven to form a grid pattern of columns and rows. When a small electrical charge was applied to a column and another at a row, the point of intersection would be charged with a directional current. If the current flowed clockwise, a 1 (one) was stored inside the unit. If the current flowed counterclockwise, a 0 (zero).
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magnetic cells, which were time-consuming and expensive to make, were
predecessors of semiconductor memory chips used in computers today.
Semiconductors use transistors in a similar to the way that magnetic core cells
used magnetic material.
Transistors are essentially microscopic switches embedded in silicon chips. The chips are considerably less expensive to make and more reliable than magnetic core cells. They also take up much less space, can hold far more information, and operate much faster.
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