Manual assembly of a 64×64 core plane for SAGE (1953) took 40 hours. On occasion, an assembler would burst into tears if a core plane failed final testing and the work was wasted. IBM rapidly introduced automation and brought the assembly time down to minutes.
In 1965, as demand for core memory increased, IBM moved some production to Japan and Taiwan, where labor costs were so low that manual stringing of cores was cheaper than automated assembly. Unfortunately for IBM, competitors also moved production to Asia, negating the advantage IBM had from automation.
In 1965, as demand for core memory increased, IBM moved some production to Japan and Taiwan, where labor costs were so low that manual stringing of cores was cheaper than automated assembly. Unfortunately for IBM, competitors also moved production to Asia, negating the advantage IBM had from automation.