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Thread ID: 75893	2007-01-14 00:50:00	How much ram?	Cicero (40)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
515630	2007-01-14 00:50:00	Received an email today with a pic of what looks like 2, 44 gal drums,with the question what is it. Turns out to be Its a hard disk in 1956.... HDD with 5MB 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. Start appreciating your 4 GB memory stick!	Cicero (40)
515631	2007-01-14 08:25:00	Not to be out done, here is a bit more peripheral and maybe useless information :) A picture showing the stack of disks, somewhat like on this site: . wikipedia . org/wiki/IBM_350" target="_blank">en . wikipedia . org was on the dust cover on the seminal text book on gas bearings, called Gas Film Lubrication by W A (Bill) Gross, published in 1962 . The reason for the picture was that the hard drive reading heads, as now, were hydrodynamic air bearings, ie self-acting as distinct from externally pressurised bearings, and also because Bill, who had previously worked for Ampex, had played a large part in the development . In those days the heads 'floated' at a much larger gap than now, and from memory, I think were about 1 inch square pads . In about 1973, at Aerostatic Ltd, Poole Dorset, we designed and manufactured a super precise rotary air bearing table of about 350mm diameter for IBM at their manor house laboratories near Winchester UK to test 'Winchester' disks . (no connection between the two names) . This unit rotated at 3000rpm and the spin axis had to run appreciably better than 20 microinch ( 1/2 um ) total indicated run out as well as the platen surface to within this figure during disk testing at this speed . Just thought I'd mention it, these sort of things tend to get forgotten :)	Terry Porritt (14)
515632	2007-01-14 09:30:00	I find it fascinating,that a half decent laptop of today,with its capacity,would have cost you a $1000000 25 years ago.	Cicero (40)
515633	2007-01-14 13:06:00	I find it fascinating,that a half decent laptop of today,with its capacity,would have cost you a $1000000 25 years ago. with LCD screen and 2GHz processor, 512MB RAM and 100GB of hard disk space? more than that! The IBM 3380 Direct Access Storage Device was introduced in June 1980. It used new film head technology and had a capacity of 2.52 gigabytes with a data transfer rate of 3 megabytes per second. Average access time was 16 ms. Purchase price at time of introduction ranged from $81,000 to $142,200. Due to problems encountered, the first units did not ship until October, 1981	motorbyclist (188)
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