CORE WARS

plural noun (Science and Technology) In computing jargon, a type of computer game played by programming experts, in which the object is to design and run a program which will destroy the one designed and run by the opponent. Etymology: Formed by compounding; core is a reference to the old ferromagnetic cores which made up the memory elements of computers used in the fifties and sixties, before the advent of semiconductor chips. Active memory is still sometimes referred to as core memory, even in modern computers. History and Usage: The 'sport' of core wars originated among computer scientists at Bell Laboratories in the US in the late fifties and sixties and was originally the proper name of a program developed by the computer-games group there. It was popularized in the US in the mid eighties, probably as a more respectable offshoot of the interest in mischievous programs such as the computer virus and worm and in defensive programming techniques which could be used to protect software from attack. By 1986 it had been raised to the level of international competition, but remains a minority interest. Robert Morris Sr....played a game based on a computer virus over 40 years ago...Called Core Wars, the game centered around the design of a program that multiplied and tried to destroy other players' programs. Personal Computing May 1989, p. 92