Check out the link.

http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/storage/storage_2314.html

Each of those cabinets is roughly the size of a small (apartment size, not just undercounter) refrigerator.
The lower sections are draws with a removable disk pack.

The section on the right is the controller, nowadays handled by a chip or two on the motherboard.
Heat, when I worked with these we would send out for food, then put it on top of the controller, under a disk pack cover and keep it warm (very).

That unit in it’s entirety holds 233 MEG, yes MEG your cameras SD card is how big ???? So each 30ish pound removable pack holds 30ish MEG.

Access times, Average 60ms minimum is 25ms, today’s drives low single digits.

Cost about a ¼ of a million bucks, in the 70s.

You could only have 8 drawers active at any time. There was a fist sized interchangeable plug that gave each drawer its address. The spare allowed you to have one drive setup for the next step, or available in case of breakdown.

I also believe the heads were moved by Hydralics, not the Winchester (effectively a speaker coil) mechanism used in todays drives.
I know the 2311s were hydralic, I believe it was the 33?? series that went winchester.

__________________
KLK, MCSE

1990 500SL

I was always taught to respect my elders.
I don't have to respect too many people anymore.

Back in the 1980's I ran a large computer repair facility for GE. We repaired lots of Data General S140, S200 and MV4000 Eclipse minicomputers and peripherals used in GE CT and MR scanners.

The disk drive used on those early GE CT/T8800 and CT/T9800 systems was a Data General Zebra. It was the size of a clothes washer, weighed 500 pounds and ran on 208v 3-phase power. Oh, and it would hold 200MB on a removeable disc pack.

Now THAT was a man's drive! None of this weeney SD card stuff.

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__________________
Bill Wood - Retired Webmaster
My Personal Website
1998 Mercedes E430
2010 Toyota Sequoia
My Photo Albums

Waay back in '67, my artillery battery was issued a computer to calculate firing data. It ran on 240V @400 hz-supplied by generator. The computer itself was the size of a large suitcase. Time required to calculate firing data was 2/3 the time of projectile flight. At maximum range, time of flight could be almost 3 minutes. Enough time to get a cuppa, light a smoke and enjoy it. Five seconds before impact, we would wake up the forward observer with the radio transmission "splash".

What kind of distance are we talking about for a nearly 3 minute flight?

__________________
Bill Wood - Retired Webmaster
My Personal Website
1998 Mercedes E430
2010 Toyota Sequoia
My Photo Albums

22 miles, or less if high angle (greater than 45°) is fired.

Ahhh, my Laptop has more storage than that array..


Is there data redundancy?

__________________
-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

Who uses disk drives anymore?

Those look like Osborne computers...

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Old meet new . . . a company has a product that looks like a Philips cassette, but houses a USB drive.

Can you imagine what it would have been like if the basic nature of pens, pencils, and paper had changed as many times and as frequently as digital storage media have over the last 15-20 years?

This one of the biggest drawbacks for me, personally, when it comes to storing information digitally.

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

I've got 30 gigs in my iPod... ha!

I remember somebody once commenting about the fact that they had more computing power in their pocket calculator than the Apollo (I forget which number it was) astronauts had in their space craft.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

First computer I had was oooon fire! A pentium processor blazing along at 75mhz. The Hard drive was a massive 729MB.
Once I was divorced, I moved over to a 386DX40 , that had a 80MB drive, and a second 345MB drive. Cost per Meg back then was roughly $1/Mb - Now, it's more like $1/Gb.
How soon for $1/Tb ?

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It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. Robert A. Heinlein


09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

We had a Tandem TXP system we installed in '85. It had an even 10 300mb (RCA) disc drives. I pretty much threatened to break the fingers of anyone who opened the drives. If you left the pack in the drive and kept it closed, they would be ok for years. Our old General Automation system had 20mb drives (later upgraded to 80) and they swapped packs twice a day. We had head crashes all the time on them.