A method and apparatus for producing single mode random fiber ring laser by inducing random distributed feedback in a short section of the fiber ring to thereby enable single mode lasing while reducing frequency jitter and relative intensity noise. The technology initially accesses a portion of code. An envelope storage and dispensing device is operative to assure that only a single envelope is delivered to the user. The storage system also is able to take into account performance metrics for the disk drives andor array groups when selecting locations from which to allocate the storage extents. The device may later be operated in a recall mode to transfer the state of the nanotube switching elements to the electronic memory.