Bubble memory was once considered to be the next big thing for computer storage, but it failed to take off as hard drives became cheaper and more robust.
Bubble memory was a form of non-volatile memory, used in several products in the 1970s and 1980s, including a word processor with an acoustic coupler modem, made by Teleram.
These devices used magnetic domains circulating on a thin film of magnetic material, which could be read and written using a read-write head.
In spite of its early promise, bubble memory was unable to compete with the higher densities that could be achieved with improved hard drives.
However, it did find a niche in applications where high vibration or extreme temperatures made conventional drives unsuitable.
Today, bubble memory has been largely superseded by flash memory, but projects still pop up occasionally that use bubble memory modules.
