Atlas's core memory consisted of ferrite rings less than 2mm diameter, 64 x 64 rings on each panel,
one x-wire, one y-wire, one signal wire,
all threaded by hand.
Compare this with the larger cores and higher power requirements of the earlier core memory of the
Boots EMIDEC.
The Manchester / Ferranti Atlas had 48-bit words each containing eight 6-bit characters.
The machine at first had 16k words of memory,
eventually increasing to 48k words.
It was designed by a Manchester University team lead by Tom Kilburn.