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Bulkiest removable storage media?



 
 
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  #11  
Old June 13th 07, 07:09 PM posted to alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch.storage
Stan Barr
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Posts: 2
Default Bulkiest removable storage media?

On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 05:48:43 -0700, Tim Shoppa
wrote:

[ BBC VERA]



Working with the figures provided (20" diameter, 1/2" thick) and a
density of steel of 7.8g/cc,I get a weight of 20kg which is like 44
pounds. (Yes, this ignores the weight of the reel itself, but it also
overestimates the weight of the tape because the center of the reel is
not occupied). A bit of a pain to lift up to head-height, but not a
contender compared to 400 pounds!


I'm glad someone reminded me of the name...
I've got an article about it in a magazine *somewhere*, which is where
I remembered it from. Quite where that mag is in the hundreds I've got
here I don't know!

--
Cheers,
Stan Barr stanb .at. dial .dot. pipex .dot. com
(Remove any digits from the addresses when mailing me.)

The future was never like this!
  #12  
Old June 13th 07, 07:46 PM posted to alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch.storage
Walter Bushell
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Posts: 4
Default Bulkiest removable storage media?

per byte it must be some kind of flopy. Just think of a gigabyte worth
of floppies would look like. OTOH don't. Probably punched paper tape,
though.
  #13  
Old June 13th 07, 08:54 PM posted to alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch.storage
Anne & Lynn Wheeler
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Posts: 40
Default Bulkiest removable storage media?

Walter Bushell writes:
per byte it must be some kind of flopy. Just think of a gigabyte worth
of floppies would look like. OTOH don't. Probably punched paper tape,
though.


maybe half gigabyte ....

another of the experimental ideas ... from the person responsible
for 801
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801

.... in addition to the recent mention of the 16+2 track head (i.e.
single head that simultaneously would read/write 16 data tracks while
tracking two servo tracks) ... old email with 16+2 track/head reference
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006s.html#30#email871230
in this post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006s.html#30 Why magnetic drums was/are worse than disks ?

some technology, sort of combination from 2321 datacell and old time
disks with single arm moving between platters. it had several hundred
floppies all rotating on a single (horizontal) shaft. r/w head moved
back&forth along the spindle ... and when the r/w head got into position
at the correct floppy ... shot of compressed air (2321 sort of had
something similar as part of inserting strip back into its bin) would
separate the floppies so the head could be inserted (had sort of leading
thin blade that entered first). there was a problem (i don't believe was
ever resolved) with the floppy material streching because of the
constant spinning (this effort was in the mid-to-late 70s ... after
floppies had been invented in san jose ... but before seeing use in
PCs).

misc. past post mentioning this large number of floppies on single
spinning spindle
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001.html#48 Competitors to SABRE?

old posts mentioning 2321
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000b.html#41 How to learn assembler language for OS/390 ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001.html#51 Competitors to SABRE?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001f.html#78 HMC . . . does anyone out there like it ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001l.html#63 MVS History (all parts)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002.html#16 index searching
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002.html#22 index searching
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002g.html#84 Questions on IBM Model 1630
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002i.html#26 : AS/400 and MVS - clarification please
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002m.html#40 Wanted: the SOUNDS of classic computing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002o.html#3 PLX
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003b.html#7 Disk drives as commodities. Was Yamhill
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003b.html#9 Disk drives as commodities. Was Yamhill
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003k.html#36 What is timesharing, anyway?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003n.html#39 DASD history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003p.html#22 1960s images of IBM 360 mainframes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004.html#5 The BASIC Variations
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004.html#6 The BASIC Variations
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#41 Infiniband - practicalities for small clusters
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004l.html#18 FW: Looking for Disk Calc program/Exec
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004p.html#0 Relational vs network vs hierarchic databases
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005c.html#23 Volume Largest Free Space Problem... ???
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005h.html#32 Software for IBM 360/30
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005t.html#50 non ECC
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005v.html#6 DMV systems?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006c.html#46 Hercules 3.04 announcement
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006n.html#29 CRAM, DataCell, and 3850
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006n.html#30 CRAM, DataCell, and 3850
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006n.html#31 CRAM, DataCell, and 3850
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006r.html#31 50th Anniversary of invention of disk drives
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006s.html#32 Why magnetic drums was/are worse than disks ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006v.html#31 MB to Cyl Conversion
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006y.html#35 The Future of CPUs: What's After Multi-Core?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007b.html#19 How many 36-bit Unix ports in the old days?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007e.html#38 FBA rant
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007e.html#51 FBA rant
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007e.html#64 FBA rant
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007f.html#64 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#74 The Perfect Computer - 36 bits?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007l.html#49 Drums: Memory or Peripheral?
  #14  
Old June 14th 07, 12:42 AM posted to alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch.storage
Quadibloc
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Posts: 46
Default Bulkiest removable storage media?

Stan Barr wrote:
On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:32:49 -0700, Tim Shoppa
wrote:
What's the bulkiest removable storage media? Drums etc. don't count
because you don't often switch the drum (although they certainly could
be heavy judging by nothing but the size of the bearings). I worked
with RP06 packs and some funky optical tape reels in the past, but
those were pretty measly compared to some others I have seen or heard
about:

..
An IMAX 3-D reel can be 350 pounds and even the projector room even
has a dedicated forklift for helping load them:
http://www.architectureweek.com/2002...lding_1-2.html

..
An SSEC "paper tape" reel was punched-card-width stock not cut into
individual cards, sprocket holed and with 78 usable columns, and a
reel of it weighed 400 pounds:
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/ssec-tape.html

..
Any other bulkier examples I'm missing?

..
The original BBC steel tape video recorders? Huge reels of thin steel
tape, spliced by welding and grinding!

..
An IMAX reel is, of course, a film reel. And the SSEC paper tape
wasn't intended to be removed except to be discarded when used up - it
was the memory of that one computer.

Still, these examples certainly have anything I might suggest beat - I
was thinking of the tape reels of the Datamatic D-1000 computer, which
were *pretty* bulky, but not in this league.

http://www.smecc.org/honeywell_datamatic_1000.htm

31-channel magnetic tape, 3 inches wide.

John Savard

  #15  
Old June 14th 07, 03:44 AM posted to alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch.storage
CBFalconer
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Posts: 919
Default Bulkiest removable storage media?

Anne & Lynn Wheeler wrote:
Walter Bushell writes:

per byte it must be some kind of flopy. Just think of a gigabyte
worth of floppies would look like. OTOH don't. Probably punched
paper tape, though.


.... snip ...

some technology, sort of combination from 2321 datacell and old time
disks with single arm moving between platters. it had several hundred
floppies all rotating on a single (horizontal) shaft. r/w head moved
back&forth along the spindle ... and when the r/w head got into position
at the correct floppy ... shot of compressed air (2321 sort of had
something similar as part of inserting strip back into its bin) would
separate the floppies so the head could be inserted (had sort of leading
thin blade that entered first). there was a problem (i don't believe was
ever resolved) with the floppy material streching because of the
constant spinning (this effort was in the mid-to-late 70s ... after
floppies had been invented in san jose ... but before seeing use in PCs).


Sounds like an utter horror. Somebody must have been very
persuasive.

--
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  #16  
Old June 14th 07, 04:34 AM posted to alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch.storage
Bit Banger
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Posts: 2
Default Bulkiest removable storage media?

Eric Sosman wrote:

Bit Banger wrote:
Eric Sosman wrote:
Clay tablets? Around 5 grams per bit, I'd guess,
plus or minus Finagle's Variable Constant.


Probably a lot more than that, if you want adequate redundancy.

I have these 15! [Whoops! *crash*] ... 10! 10 distribution media!


... and the other five get swept up and put in the

... wait for it ...
... bit bucket.


By the garbage collector, no doubt.

Or course, such incidents could lead to dangling styli.
  #17  
Old June 14th 07, 12:29 PM posted to alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch.storage
Quadibloc
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 46
Default Bulkiest removable storage media?

CBFalconer wrote:
Sounds like an utter horror. Somebody must have been very
persuasive.

..
I never heard of an IBM peripheral like that, but I know somebody made
a multi-floppy pack with something similar for the early microcomputer
world. It didn't stay very popular, but it was out there for a little
while.

John Savard

  #18  
Old June 14th 07, 04:14 PM posted to alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch.storage
Anne & Lynn Wheeler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 40
Default Bulkiest removable storage media?

Quadibloc writes:
I never heard of an IBM peripheral like that, but I know somebody made
a multi-floppy pack with something similar for the early microcomputer
world. It didn't stay very popular, but it was out there for a little
while.


well before the start of steep decline in hard disk prices (and well
before cdroms)

'80 Mbytes of storage for under $12k!' and other ad favorites through the years
http://www.computerworld.com/action/...leId=9023 960
  #19  
Old June 14th 07, 05:13 PM posted to alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch.storage
Walter Bushell
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4
Default Bulkiest removable storage media?

In article ,
Anne & Lynn Wheeler wrote:

'80 Mbytes of storage for under $12k!' and other ad favorites through the
years


Makes my purchase of a .04 gig drive for $1000 look like a bargain.
  #20  
Old June 14th 07, 05:26 PM posted to alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch.storage
Walter Bushell
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4
Default Bulkiest removable storage media?

In article ,
Anne & Lynn Wheeler wrote:

Quadibloc writes:
I never heard of an IBM peripheral like that, but I know somebody made
a multi-floppy pack with something similar for the early microcomputer
world. It didn't stay very popular, but it was out there for a little
while.


well before the start of steep decline in hard disk prices (and well
before cdroms)

'80 Mbytes of storage for under $12k!' and other ad favorites through the
years
http://www.computerworld.com/action/...leBasic&articl
eId=9023960


AND 30 day delivery!
 




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