Memories: Bubbles rise from the lab: Developmental prototypes and even limited production of 65-kb and larger bubble memories are the result of advances on a broad front

Magnetic bubble memories have long shown promise as reliable, low-cost alternatives to electromechanical mass-storage devices. The solid-state circuits offer very high chip-storage capacities, consume very little power, and are nonvolatile. But, until recently, what was technically feasible in the laboratory was not economically practical for system design.