Development
Development of Selectron started in 1946 at the behest of John von Neumann of the Institute for Advanced Study, who was in the midst of designing the IAS machine and was looking for a new form of high-speed memory. RCA responded with the Selectron with a capacity of 4096 bits, with a planned production of 200 by the end of the year. They found the device to be much more difficult to build than expected, and they were still not available by the middle of 1948. As development dragged on, the IAS machine was forced to switch to Williams tubes for storage, and the primary customer for Selectron disappeared.
RCA continued work on the concept, re-designing it for a smaller 256-bit capacity. The 256-bit Selectron was projected to cost about $500 each when in full production. While they were more reliable and faster than the Williams tube, that cost and the lack of availability, meant they were used only in one computer: the RAND Corporation's JOHNNIAC.
Both the Selectron and the Williams tube were superseded in the market by the more compact and cost effective magnetic core memory, in the early 1950s.
Read more about this topic: Selectron Tube
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