14 Sep
2006
14 Sep
'06
10:27 a.m.
On 9/14/2006 at 6:13 AM Dave Dunfield wrote:
Today is the 50th anniversary of the IBM 305 RAMAC -
listed at the link
below as the first computer system that had a disk drive.
http://www.cedmagic.com/history/ibm-305-ramac.html
The Beeb had a little segment on the anniversary, too. Does anyone think
that the disk drive will see 100?
I do recall the Bryant disks. I believe they spun at 600 RPM and that a
head assembly weighed about 8 lbs. When they performed a seek, you
definitely could feel a tremor in the floor. They used "zone recording".
The outer zone had more sectors per track than the inner one.
At one time, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago had a RAMAC
drive on exhibit, with the head moving up and down and in and out. Since
the exhibit was an illustration of "modern technology", this was probably
at least 40 years ago.
Cheers,
Chuck