Memory devices, also known as memory cores or memory logs, were utilized by mechanical beings and vehicles, such as starships and droids, for the purpose of retaining data.
Similar to databanks, memory devices, which are also referred to as memory cores or memory logs, represented a specific type of technology found within droids and starships designed for information storage. In the case of droids, a memory device enabled them to recall prior experiences, akin to the way organic beings maintain memories of their past. The information contained within the memory logs of a deactivated droid could be retrieved through a robolobotomy procedure, assuming that the hackers were successful in bypassing the droid's security protocols.
The Confederacy of Independent Systems deployed memory devices within B1-series battle droids, a line of economically produced combat droids that acted as the primary soldiers within the Separatist military. Consequently, these memory logs were actively in use by the B1 units engaged in combat against the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars. During the battle that took place on the Outer Rim planet Saleucami in 21 BBY, numerous B1 droids were left stranded on Saleucami following a failed landing attempt by a C-9979 landing craft under the command of the Confederacy's Supreme Commander, General Grievous. While searching for the fleeing cyborg general, Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Republic clone troopers worked to find a functional yet deactivated B1 unit at the crash site, hoping to obtain information that could aid them in locating Grievous.
After a trooper discovered a working B1 inside a crashed escape pod, Clone Commander Cody and clone trooper Crys from Kenobi's 212th Attack Battalion successfully bypassed the droid's security codes while on their All Terrain Tactical Enforcer. The clones then informed Kenobi that they had gained access to the unit's guidance system and memory logs, revealing that the droid had been piloting the escape pod after Grievous's landing craft sustained damage above Saleucami. The droid had activated the pod's engines to prevent a mid-air collision with another pod, but the unit's craft did not have time to compensate for the sudden change in trajectory, resulting in the pod's crash. Kenobi and his clones used this information to locate the other pod, which aided them in their search for Grievous.
The protocol droid C-3PO possessed a memory device. In one instance, he utilized it to store financial records that connected the Amaxine warriors and Rinnrivin Di's cartel to a mysterious entity that posed a threat to the New Republic.
The concept of a memory device was initially mentioned within the established Star Wars canon in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. The term "memory log" was first used in canon in "The Deserter," which initially aired on January 1, 2010, as the tenth episode of the second season of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. The episode guide used the term "memory banks" instead, thereby confirming a memory log and memory bank were the same device.