[cctalk] Re: Ramac : The real first disk drive? (Was: Floppy disk (fwd)

Did it have hydraulic positioners like the old CDC 3300 drives? On Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 6:29 PM Paul Koning via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > >> On Jun 10, 2026, at 7:32 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: >> >> Didn't show up on the list, so re-sending it: >> >> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- >> Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:14:39 -0700 (PDT) >> From: Fred Cisin <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> >> Subject: [cctalk] Ramac : The real first disk drive? (Was: Floppy disk >> >> The first known and recognized disk drive of ANY type (hard disk preceded floppy) was the Ramac, 70 years ago, 1956 >> >> https://www.computerhistory.org/storageengine/first-commercial-hard-disk-dr… >> >> First one shipped was to Crown-Zellerbach Paper Company >> >> CHM says June; >> >> EDN and Google AI (Gemini) say September 13, 1956 >> https://www.edn.com/ibm-intros-1st-computer-disk-storage-unit-september-13-… >> >> But, Gemini seems to also hallucinate RAMAC as being a company! >> "At the 1958 Worlds Fair, RAMAC showcased its revolutionary random-access capabilities by answering world history questions in 10 different languages." >> (There was no Ramac Company exhibiting at the 1958 Worlds Fair) >> >> Ramac had fifty 2 foot diameter double sided platters, and could hold a total of about 5MB. Modern drives can have even higher density! >> I have a crashed Ramac platter, that I have made into a patio table, with the platter under glass. > "Higher density" indeed. One of the first hard drives I used was 128 kB (DEC RC11/RS64). > > One peculiar aspect of the RAMAC is that it only had one head, or one pair, so track switching was a lot slower than cylinder switching: it had to retract all the way, then move the head vertically to the correct track, then seek in again to the right cylinder. > > paul >