(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Kitchen Table Kibitzing 9/14/22: Rockin' The RAMAC [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2022-09-14
Bits and bites tonight
Happy 66th Birthday to the first computer to use a hard drive, the IBM 305 RAMAC.
The IBM 305 RAMAC was the first commercial computer that used a moving-head hard disk drive (magnetic disk storage) for secondary storage.[1] The system was publicly announced on September 14, 1956,[2][3] with test units already installed at the U.S. Navy and at private corporations.[2] RAMAC stood for "Random Access Method of Accounting and Control",[4] as its design was motivated by the need for real-time accounting in business.[5]
Chrysler’s MOPAR parts division needed to keep track of inventory.
The first hard disk unit was shipped September 13, 1956.[6] The additional components of the computer were a card punch, a central processing unit, a power supply unit, an operator's console/card reader unit, and a printer. There was also a manual inquiry station that allowed direct access to stored records. IBM touted the system as being able to store the equivalent of 64,000 punched cards.[5] The 305 was one of the last vacuum tube computers that IBM built. It weighed over a ton.[7] The IBM 350 disk system stored 5 million alphanumeric characters recorded as six data bits, one parity bit and one space bit for eight bits recorded per character.[8] It had fifty 24-inch-diameter (610 mm) disks. Two independent access arms moved up and down to select a disk, and in and out to select a recording track, all under servo control. Average time to locate a single record was 600 milliseconds. Several improved models were added in the 1950s. The IBM RAMAC 305 system with 350 disk storage leased for US$3,200 (equivalent to $30,874 in 2021) per month.
How much storage did you get for all that?
The total amount of information stored on its 50 spinning iron-oxide-coated disks--each of them a pizza-size 24 inches--was 5 megabytes. That's not quite enough to hold two MP3 copies of Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog."
My phone can fit 32,768 of those inside.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/14/2122313/-Kitchen-Table-Kibitzing-9-14-22-Rockin-The-RAMAC
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
