13 Sep
2007
13 Sep
'07
5:53 p.m.
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Subject: [Electronics_101] On this day
Date: Thursday 13 September 2007 18:05
From: Bruce <hvekybd_willtrav at bellsouth.net>
To: Electronics_101 at yahoogroups.com
From Wikipedia,
1956 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1956> - IBM
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM> unveiled the 305 RAMAC
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_305_RAMAC> (Random Access Method of
Accounting and Control), the first commercial computer
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer> that used magnetic disk storage
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive>.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_305_RAMAC
Though this would be interesting. Just one of the large boxes in the
picture, hold almost as much as a DVD does today. Just show how far we
have come.
-------------------------------------------------------
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
13 Sep
13 Sep
7:15 p.m.
On 13 Sep 2007 at 17:53, Roy J. Tellason wrote:
Though this would be interesting. Just one of the
large boxes in the
picture, hold almost as much as a DVD does today. Just show how far we
have come.
Try about 3 3.5 DSHD floppies. A DVD is orders of magnitude larger.
It seems to me that Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry once had
a model of one whose operation could be observed (i.e. much of the
box "skins" were stripped away so you could observe the head moving
up and down the stack.
Cheers,
Chuck
14 Sep
14 Sep
7:16 a.m.
On Friday 14 September 2007 00:15:03 Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 13 Sep 2007 at 17:53, Roy J. Tellason 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...
Gordon
Though this would be interesting. Just one of
the large boxes in the
picture, hold almost as much as a DVD does today. Just show how far we
have come.
Try about 3 3.5 DSHD floppies. A DVD is orders of magnitude larger.
It seems to me that Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry once had
a model of one whose operation could be observed (i.e. much of the
box "skins" were stripped away so you could observe the head moving
up and down the stack.
12:49 p.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
1:58 p.m.
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...
Our drive is faster, more powerfull and vinyl ... Look at those 45's spin.
Gordon
Well it was after a few beers ... :)
9:51 p.m.
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...
We were having a similar discussion on the list a couple of years ago:
******* BEGIN OLD MSG *********
Subject: Re: data stored in moving rust, was Re: Remembering RAMAC
Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 11:12:56 -0700
From: Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca>
To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Eric Smith wrote:
>
> Tom wrote:
> > Hand-wave -- it was obvious.
>
> In hindsight it looks obvious. I'm not convinced that it was
> obvious 50 years ago.
I can imagine a couple of engineers in the 1950s hanging out at the diner for
lunch and discussing "we need something with capabilities similar to drums
but with a lot more storage capacity".
One of the engineers gets up from his seat and puts a nickel in the jukebox,
and watches the tone-arm move amongst the stack of disc records...
******* END OLD MSG *********
It's also interesting to note that audio recording went through the same
transition: starting out on drums (cylinders) and then moving to discs.
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