Clive on Learning: Can you guess what's being loaded onto this plane?

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Answer to follow ...

At 7:51 PM, bill7tx said...: It's an IBM 350 Disk File -- the first hard disk drive to be delivered as part of a mainframe system. It was part of the IBM 305 RAMAC, introduced on September 13, 1956. For a photo of the drive in use, see http://www.cedmagic.com/history/ibm-305-ramac.jpg.

Prior to the 350 Disk File, computer memory was core, mag tape, or drum storage. Storage on the 350 consisted of fifty 24-inch platters, with a combined capacity of about 4.4 MB (5 million 7-bit characters). IBM leased the drive to companies for a $35,000 annual fee.

The drive is being loaded onto a Pan Am Super Connie freighter, probably also in 1956.
At 8:02 PM, bill7tx said...: A little more, relating to the photo (this is from the Wikipedia entry on early IBM disk storage): "In an interview[5] published in the Wall Street Journal, Currie Munce, research vice president for Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, which acquired the IBM's storage business, said the entire RAMAC unit weighed over a ton and had to be moved around with forklifts and delivered via large cargo airplanes."

Gee, that was fun.
At 8:05 PM, bill7tx said...: And I believe I've found the source for your photo.

http://www.spectrumdata.com.au/content.aspx?cid=254

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