Weighing in at more than a ton and storing 5MB of data, the IBM 305 RAMAC was the first super computer with a hard disk drive (HDD).
Introduced by IBM on September 13, 1956, RAMAC stood for “Random Access Method of Accounting and Control” and used a moving head hard disk drive (magnetic disk storage) for secondary storage.
So large that it had to be moved by forklift and transported by plane, the original 305 RAMAC computer system could be housed in a room of about 9 meters by 15 meters. The 350 disk storage unit, itself, measured around 1.5 square meters.
The machine stored 5 million 8-bit (7 data bits plus 1 parity bit) characters, the equivalent of 64,000 punch cards, on 50 24-inch magnetic disks.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
