14 Sep
2007
14 Sep
'07
9:49 a.m.
On 14 Sep 2007 at 12:16, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
I often wonder about the process that lead to the
design of the drive. I can
picture a couple of engineers sitting mulling over the problem over a few
beers, trying to get more capacity out of their disks. One gets up to go and
get a round in, and decides to go stick something on the jukebox...
Or even the orientation of the disk stack. Ramac used a vertical
axis of rotation, but the old Bryant disks were horizontal. The same
distinction appears with drums--some horizontal, some vertical.
For the mechanical engineering types out there: are there distinct
advantages of one over the other? In particular, I recall the big
Univac Fastrand horizontal drums ran into big problems when subjected
to vibration from heavy vehicle traffic.
Cheers,
Chuck