In modern computer memory, a sense amplifier is one of the elements which make up the circuitry on a semiconductor memory chip (integrated circuit); the term itself dates back to the era of magnetic core memory. A sense amplifier is part of the read circuitry that is used when data is read from the memory; its role is to sense the low power signals from a bitline that represents a data bit (1 or 0) stored in a memory cell, and amplify the small voltage swing to recognizable logic levels so the data can be interpreted properly by logic outside the memory.