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History of Science and Mathematics

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    $\begingroup$ A very interesting answer. Your additions, if provided, will also be of further interest. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 5 at 15:40
  • $\begingroup$ cyclic memory? Like a delay line, or tape loop that can only move one direction? Interesting, that would indeed line up well with Bubble Sort's access pattern. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 6 at 19:45
  • $\begingroup$ I will be able to be more precise when I see Demuth's thesis, but I think he is referring to circular buffers or delay lines. I also note that Demuth's thesis is from October 1956, and that in January 1956 an IBM 650 arrived at the Electronics Lab at Stanford (where Demuth worked), which was a drum computer, meaning that the program and data resided on a rotating magnetic drum, rather than in random access memory. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 6 at 20:46