Solid state: CCD and bubble memories system implications: Mainframe computers and intelligent terminals are predicted to be primary beneficiaries

For many years, an “access gap” existed between fast electronic memories (< 1-µs access time) and the slower magnetic serial-access memories (> 5×103-µs access time), a gap that was not to be bridged until the mid-1970s with the emergence of viable cost-effective new electronic technologies — electron-beam addressable memories (EBAMs), charge-coupled-device (CCD) memories, and magnetic-bubble memories (MBMs). Now, price/performance tradeoffs for these memory technologies have led to several new options in computer architecture, as will be shown here for the case of CCDs and MBMs.