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On 6/13/13 3:06 PM, Dan Kimmel wrote:
Something like 2MB took up an entire room. Big. Heavy. Expensive.
They would only be used for something like an index with the actual
data held on regular disks. This was at a time when most I/O was
through punched cards and printers. The only actual use I can think
of was in telephone switching equipment and I'm not sure about that.
I don't think I've ever been in the same room with an operational drive
that had multiple arms per platter.
The Merlins I alluded to were the ultimate development in unsealed-pack
drives: voice-coil head positioning, and error correction, in a drive
that was mounted on power-driven drawer tracks in the drive rack.
I have, however, been in the same room with a fully operational computer
that has actual core memory, a paper-tape drive, and a typebar console
typewriter: the Computer History Museum has a fully-restored DEC PDP-1
on display, which they power up and demonstrate twice a month. Because
it uses core memory, it does not have to be IPL'd when it's powered up:
core memory doesn't forget its contents with the power off (it does,
however, forget when you read it, requiring you to refresh each bit as
it's read).
They also have one of only two operational specimens of Babbage's
"Difference Engine 2." It was funded by Nathan Myhrvold, and built by
the London Science Museum, in return for his funding the completion of
their specimen.
Alas, I don't think the CHM has any AS/400s on display. And while I know
they have Merlin packs, and might have Merlin drives, they don't have
any of them on display. (They do have a Winchester pack on display, though.)
--
JHHL
midrange.com
