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It started with a product announcement in May of 1955. IBM Corp. was introducing a product that offered unprecedented random-access storage — 5 million characters (not bytes, they were 7-bit, not 8-bit characters). This first disk drive heralded startling leaps in mass-storage technology and the end of sequential storage on punched cards and paper or Mylar tape, though magnetic tape would continue for archival or backup storage.The disk drive was big, not quite ready for today’s laptop. With its vacuum-tube control electronics, the RAMAC (for “random-access method of accounting and controlâ€) occupied the space of two refrigerators and weighed a ton. It stored those 5 million characters on 50 hefty aluminum disks coated on both sides with a magnetic iron oxide, a variation of the paint primer used for the Golden Gate Bridge.The 350 Disk Storage Unit consisted of the magnetic disk memory unit with its access mechanism, the electronic and pneumatic controls for the access mechanism, and a small air compressor. Assembled with covers, the 350 was 60 inches long, 68 inches high and 29 inches deep. It was configured with 50 magnetic disks containing 50,000 sectors, each of which held 100 alphanumeric characters, for a capacity of 5 million characters.Disks rotated at 1,200 rpm, tracks (20 to the inch) were recorded at up to 100 bits per inch, and typical head-to-disk spacing was 800 microinches. The execution of a “seek†instruction positioned a read-write head to the track that contained the desired sector and selected the sector for a later read or write operation. Seek time averaged about 600 milliseconds.With storage capacities of 5 million and 10 million digits, and the capability to be installed either singly or in pairs, the 350 provided the 305 system with storage capacities of 5, 10, 15 or 20 million characters.An IBM RAMAC 305 with a 350 disk storage unit leased for about $3,200 per month back in 1957. Over a thousand of the 305 systems (one of IBM’s last vacuum tube units) were manufactured before production ended in 1961, and the 305 was withdrawn in 1969.
Up until maybe ten years ago that thing sat in the lobby of the IBM plant in south San Jose. Khrushchev visited there on his way up hwy 101 from LA in 1960(?).
Monday, September 21, 1959Khrushchev begins the day with a boat tour of the San Francisco Bay. He spots an aircraft carrier entering the harbor and remarks to Lodge that such vessels are big targets that would be easily destroyed should war break out. He then says he believes submarines to be the naval weapon of the future. Afternoon - At the headquarters of the Longshoremen’s Union of the Pacific Coast, Khrushchev gives a brief speech and meets with union members, including union chairman Harry Bridges, who is speculated to have Communist affiliations. When the press asks Bridges to stand behind the much shorter Khrushchev, he responds, "I’ll stand behind him. He’s a good man. I may even give him a job." This, along with Khrushchev trading hats with a union member -- and wearing the Longshoreman’s cap the rest of the day -- prompted media speculation that Khrushchev was trying to "stir up trouble."In San Jose, Khrushchev goes on a tour of IBM where he is allegedly more impressed with the efficiency of the cafeteria than with the computers. After IBM, Khrushchev visits a supermarket outside San Francisco, causing a media frenzy. Khrushchev’s security forms a protective wall around the Premier as customers swarm him and photographers climb grocery displays to try to get a shot of Khrushchev inspecting American produce, deli meats and frozen dinners.
