Talk:Memory cell (computing)

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Possible circular definition

The old definition looks a Circular definition. Of couse, all computer memory has a lot of memory cell, but it's appearing a circular definition. To be a circular definition isn't necessary put the same name, only need be of the "same group" and/or a higher level of abstraction.

The memory cell is the fundamental building block of computer memory.

In the definition you can say what is a cell without depends of the memory definition, and the memory cell is a well-defined structure, so the definition of memory cell being a computer memory is clearly circular.

Maybe a better one would be:

The memory cell is the fundamental structured block of computer memory.^{[circular definition]}

QuantumNinus (talk) 19:46, 9 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

In the definition you can say what is a cell without depends of the memory definition Cell is a disambiguation page, so you have to say what type of cell is being discussed here. What distinguishes this type of cell from other cells is that... this type of cell used to implement computer memory.

"Computer memory" can - and should! - be defined in ways that don't involve the implementation detail, given that what we think of as "main memory" or "primary memory" has been implemented using a number of different technologies. See Computer memory § History. And, in fact, the lead of Computer memory says "Computer memory stores information, such as data and programs, for immediate use in the computer."

(As you noted, "immediate use" needs some clarification. I've made changes to Computer memory to fix that.)

The problem here is that there's the general concept of a memory cell, meaning "something that stores one unit of computer memory" (typically one bit), and the specific concept of a semiconductor memory cell, which is the fundamental building block of semiconductor memory.

This article covers both, but spends most of its text discussing semiconductor memory cells.

If the term "memory cell" has not been historically used for any forms of computer memory other than semiconductor memory, all discussion of memory cores and other forms of non-semiconductor memory should be removed from this article, and the article should talk only about semiconductor memory cells. Guy Harris (talk) 22:49, 9 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

A Bell System Technical Journal article on twistor memory (by the inventor of the twistor and twistor memory) uses the term "memory cell" to refer to a single twistor, so, yes, the term "memory cell" has been used at least once for a form of memory other than semiconductor memory. I've updated the article to make that clearer, complete with a reference to that journal article. Guy Harris (talk) 10:56, 16 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]