...
> (Mindless rambliing) Lawrence Livermore used to
have some sort of
> photographic data storage unit that was pretty unique. I can't even
> remember the name of the thing, does any recall it?
Back in the late '60s I remember seeing a unit from IBM that used film
storage. The film was a small rectangle, maybe 1" x 2-1/2". These were
stored in magazines of some sort, IIRC. They could be individually selected
randomly.
I have one of the film rectangles somewhere. When I run across it again I
will post a link to an image. In the mean time, does this ring a bell with
anyone?
I can't remember a model number or anything, so perhaps it was a proof of
concept or something. I was working at Baylor Medical in Houston & they had
a pretty good in with IBM. We had all manner of strange devices installed on
a 360/50 from time to time. We even had one of those noodle snatchers in for
a while.
I also remember when we got our first megabyte memory - called a Large Core
Storage. It was from Ampex and was about the size of a refrigerator - maybe
a little deeper. There was a visible stack of core planes about 4' tall
inside it.
Gil