History & Tech AhBoon | 05 Jan 2007 01:00 am
This is a 5MB Hard Disk
The Volume and Size of 5MB memory storage in 1956. In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first computer with a hard disk drive (HDD). The HDD weighed over a ton and stored 5MB of data.
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The IBM 350 Disk Storage Unit provides storage capacity of the disk drive was 5MB (referred to at the time as 5 million characters). It was configured with 50 magnetic disks containing 50,000 sectors, each of which held 100 alphanumeric characters.
With the cabinet covers on, the IBM 350 Disk Storage Unit measured 5’ 8” tall, 5’ wide and 2’ 5” deep, whilst it weighed in at massive 250kgs. The unit comprised fifty 24” platters, one pair of read/write heads and a pulley system that provided both the vertical and horizontal head movement.
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Foreground, two IBM 350 Disk Storage Units in operation
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References:
Disk Storage Unit – 50 years
Newsweek - The Hard Disk That Changed the World
Wikipedia - Early IBM disk storage
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Technorati Tags: IBM, Hard Disk, RAMAC 305, IBM 350, Disk Storage
17 Responses to “This is a 5MB Hard Disk”
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on 08 Jan 2007 at 6:21 pm 1.the suzette aka lzbone said …
This is a very good post! You have done a good research on this huh!
on 14 Jan 2007 at 3:10 pm 2.gspence said …
This is awesome–thanks for posting it!
on 16 Jan 2007 at 10:09 pm 3.Multiplayer.ro » Blog Archive » This is a 5MB Hard Disk said …
[…] read more | digg story […]
on 21 Apr 2007 at 2:45 am 4.JuZZi90 said …
melkonen kovo :E
on 21 Apr 2007 at 2:45 am 5.JuZZi90 said …
ramac on just kovis :E
on 21 Apr 2007 at 4:24 am 6.eFoxley.com | dope » Blog Archive » A 5mb Hard Drive in 1956 said …
[…] […]
on 21 Apr 2007 at 3:34 pm 7.Juissi16v said …
No johan on kovo ku pittää minunnii sitä kommentoija.
on 21 Apr 2007 at 7:38 pm 8.Werre said …
Perkules pojat, ‘KOVO’ on rautaa! Älkää raiskatko sanaa, jonka edestä isänne kuolivat rintamalla!
on 21 Apr 2007 at 8:40 pm 9.kimmoprkl said …
aamen!
-k-
on 22 Apr 2007 at 2:22 am 10.jannu said …
No jopas on umpilevyllä kokoa.
on 22 Apr 2007 at 3:50 pm 11.Elvis said …
Voi pojat. Ajatelkaas millainen olisi ollut tuon ajan kannettava “usbitikku”, mahtuisi varmaan auton peräkonttiin ja olisi rullat alla että saisi vetää lattioita pitkin.
on 22 Apr 2007 at 5:24 pm 12.warre de luxe said …
joko ne tuohon aikaan imutteli ?
on 22 Apr 2007 at 10:51 pm 13.jeeger said …
Oraville kiipeilytelineet vesitorneihin. Jos rakentaisi puusta, niin tulisiko sillä tavoin edullisemmaksi?
on 30 Apr 2007 at 4:27 pm 14.gogogo said …
_|_
on 03 May 2007 at 10:15 am 15.Jimmy said …
I have actually worked on these, not 1956 though. You could replace the heads and also the platters (today’s drives have a single head, single platter but are still rated as having so many heads and so many cylinders) and after replacement you had to align the heads using an oscilloscope.
Those were the days. I lost the tip of my finger doing a maintenance job when I tried to slow down the spinning cylinders with my thumb and index finger. Idiot.
on 06 May 2007 at 9:24 am 16.Rolf said …
There was not all that much technological development in those days, too. In 1980 computers were still as big as washing machines. I’ve had a harddisk in my hands, it was called a disk pack, that was really heavy and contained a number of platters that were at least as big as vinyl LP’s. BTW, did you know that the computer in the lunar module (1969) had less capacity than a Commodore 64?
Greetz from the Netherlands, Rolf
on 14 Jun 2007 at 1:16 pm 17.Hi-Tek said …
i have on of that home to , is in the basement now i supose