Peripherals: Recycle old HDs(junk HDs)
Guess
by jjddss - 5/19/06 6:06 AM In reply to: Conversation pieces by bestsealerThose are drum disk drives. Instead of the platter we are use to in hard disk of the modern era they would rotate on an axle. Much like some of the very early record players.
Yep ... those are itty bitty DRUMs
by GoodTimeCharlie - 5/19/06 6:22 AM In reply to: Guess by jjddssThe name ''drums'' is actually an acronym as follows:
DRUM = Divice Random Access Memory
Worked on a mainframe system in the 1970s (Univac 1108) that had these devices but they were the size of a refrigerator (laying on it side). Cant remember how much storage the big DRUMs had but we thought it was MASSIVE!!!
We also had a device called ''CRAM'' (Card Random Access Memory) hooked to an NCR-315 mainframe. These had 256 magnetic ''cards'' that hung on rods and dropped into a spinning reader when you requested the data. Each card had 256 'tracks' of data, each track could hold 256k of data ... hum does the number 256 sound like a physical/logical barrier to you too?
Boy have I dated myself!!!
Close..
by bestsealer - 5/19/06 6:38 AM In reply to: Yep ... those are itty bitty DRUMs by GoodTimeCharlieWell, you guys are close.. but they are definitely not 'ramdom access' storage devices, but rather sequential storage access devices, like take drives.
These are cartridges from the IBM 3850 mass storage device. Each cart could hold about 50 MB of data, and the 3850 device had a honeycomb storage that held about 10,000 of these carts. (Do a google on ''IBM 3850 mass storage'' for more info)
A close up photo of a cartridge with the tape can be seen at; http://www.science.uva.nl/museum/remarkable.html
(the same page also talks about another 'mass storage' device, the IBM 2321 - yeah, and I worked on that one too! Ah, the good old days..)
btw.. I just noticed that one of these carts recently sold on ebay for about $355.. and I have two on the shelf.. hmmmmm...
Hds, ohhh no
by Willy - 5/19/06 8:27 AM In reply to: Close.. by bestsealerI worked at the Burroughs refurb center back in the old days. I rebuild old "cermanic" disk HDs of a single platter and 1-sidedUsed mostly in banks). When they truly crashed, they smashed and cracked and all that. Otherwsie, a grove was worn-in and had to be replaced. The main Burroughs HD was a unit of 5ft. tall of 2 platters of about 30in. across or close to that. The whole unit was about 36-40in.??? across When the heads and wiring had to be replaced, they used a "solder gun" not a solder iron and the solder pot was alwyas hot. man, I'm glad I didn't work in that dept.. -----Willy
well...
by kletus - 5/19/06 9:50 AM In reply to: Conversation pieces by bestsealerI had the tape deck for the TRS80. The tape deck lasted much longer than the TRS (could be because I used it like a compuetr from a movie, touch two leads from a speaker...) Next comp was a Heath Zenith kit (real kit)wit a 10mb hd. At the same time my dad was bringing home his portable Compaq, built in crt, dual flop's on the side. Great memories.
Side note, I remeber EA sports footbal run from flops. the players were x' and o's.
Hey, I also had a TRS-80
by graham299 - 5/19/06 2:16 PM In reply to: well... by kletuswith some type of basic interpretor, maybe a basic word processor or something and game cartridges. I believe I used my old 19" TV as a monitor. Cool.
btw - I upgraded to a 21" TV back in '91. Still going strong. I don't have a new TV yet but I sure would like a slick new laptop. We've been watching the kids newer Mickey Mouse TV. Good reception.
You can always identify an old tech because they will never fail to mention their first heath-kit or Radio Shack computers.
j.
MEMORY DEVICES
by jpg40504 - 8/1/09 4:35 PM In reply to: Conversation pieces by bestsealertHOSE 'THINGS" WERE PART OF A CACHED MEMORY SYSTEM. tHE 'THINGS WERE RETRIEVED AND READ/WRITTEN TO BE A SINGLE MECHANISM. SEVERAL OF THESE THINGS WERE USED IN AN ARRAY (EGG CRATE LIKE) NESTS.
Absolutely serious
by anusinov - 5/19/06 5:55 AM In reply to: 20 Megabytes!!!!! by theandy83First IBM PC did not have HDD. They had (if you are lucky) two FDD drives 360K each: one for OS the other one for customer programs or data. If you are unlucky you boot from OS floppy and swapped disk. First HDD controller in PC was introduced in PC XT model, it came with Seagate ST225 HDD, 20 MByte capacity. It costed a fortune.
Alexander
IBM PC - 10 meg hard drives as File servers
by kimbrowne - 5/21/06 3:57 PM In reply to: Absolutely serious by anusinovThe IBM XT originally came with a full height 10 MByte hard drive. It also came with a full height 360k Floppy drive. For those that don't know what full height is - a modern cdrom occupies half the space of a full height drive.
The original IBM PC came with ONE floppy. You had to swap between your OS floppy and your application floppy.
For those that wonder what we did with such basic machines - we ran a point of sale system for clothing stores where the smaller stores had an IBM XT with a 10 MByte hard drive running as a FILE SERVER. The work stations had no hard drives - they booted off a floppy drive, mounted a shared network drive and everything thereafter was done over the network.
The bigger stores we were forced to spend a fortune on the ultra fast IBM AT with a 20 MByte hard drive.
We ran IBM PC network version 1.0a - we believe to be one of the first pc networks running commercially in the world. Communication was done back to a central site for consolidation on a mainframe via 1200 baud modems(1.2kb per second - no compression).
Yeah, and COBOL ruled at that time.
1200 Baud?!
by bestsealer - 5/21/06 8:28 PM In reply to: IBM PC - 10 meg hard drives as File servers by kimbrowne1200 baud? Heck, I remember having a 300 Baud modem.
(these stories are starting to sound like: when I went to school, we had to walk six miles. Oh yeah, well I had to walk with no shoes in the winter! blah, blah, blah... )
(NT) Heck, in the USAF we used 150 baud.. old enough?
by jackintucson
- 5/22/06 9:40 AM
In reply to: 1200 Baud?! by bestsealer
Old enough!
by kimbrowne - 5/22/06 3:59 PM In reply to: (NT) Heck, in the USAF we used 150 baud.. old enough? by jackintucson
As a friend of mine used to say to me - most people your age are dead!
Yeah, we bought state of the art because of the volume of data we needed to transmit - pkarc was a godsend when it came out - reduced our transmission times for a file by 90% - transmission for a file was still close to 10 minutes. We lost connection often meaning we had to restart. Telephone companies in those days had no sympathy - you were supposed to talk on the telephone!
not that old!!
by bestsealer - 5/22/06 7:31 PM In reply to: Old enough! by kimbrownehey, i am not that old! only 59.. if you are lucky, you will be there one day too! 
Used to ...
by jackintucson - 5/23/06 10:04 AM
In reply to: not that old!! by bestsealer
run punch card systems. Data was transmitted via a C-141 cargo jet. 
and life just went on...and on...and on...
Jack
(NT) In the USMC we used runners, " run like the wind, pvt"
by Willy - 5/23/06 6:27 AM In reply to: (NT) Heck, in the USAF we used 150 baud.. old enough? by jackintucson
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