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IBM manufactured magnetic
disk storage Disk storage (also sometimes called drive storage) is a general category of storage mechanisms where data is recorded by various electronic, magnetic, optical, or mechanical changes to a surface layer of one or more rotating disks. A disk drive is ...
devices from 1956 to 2003, when it sold its hard disk drive business to
Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...
. Both the
hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
(HDD) and
floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
drive (FDD) were invented by IBM and as such IBM's employees were responsible for many of the innovations in these products and their technologies. The basic mechanical arrangement of hard disk drives has not changed since the IBM 1301. Disk drive performance and characteristics are measured by the same standards now as they were in the 1950s. Few products in history have enjoyed such spectacular declines in cost and physical size along with equally dramatic improvements in capacity and performance. IBM manufactured 8-inch floppy disk drives from 1969 until the mid-1980s, but did not become a significant manufacturer of smaller-sized, 5.25- or 3.5-inch floppy disk drives (the dimension refers to the diameter of the floppy disk, not the size of the drive). IBM always offered its magnetic disk drives for sale but did not offer them with
original equipment manufacturer An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
(OEM) terms until 1981.IBM Enters OEM Market For Winchester Disk Drives, Electronic News, September 14, 1981 By 1996, IBM had stopped making hard disk drives unique to its systems and was offering all its HDDs as an original equipment manufacturer (
OEM An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
).IBM's disk drive family has three new members, INFOWORLD, October 17, 1994, p. 40 IBM uses many terms to describe its various magnetic disk drives, such as
direct-access storage device A direct-access storage device (DASD) (pronounced ) is a secondary storage device in which "each physical record has a discrete location and a unique address". The term was coined by IBM to describe devices that allowed random access to data, t ...
(DASD), disk file and diskette file. Here, the current industry standard terms, ''hard disk drive'' (HDD) and ''floppy disk drive'' (FDD), are used.


Early IBM HDDs


IBM 350

The IBM 350 disk storage unit, the first disk drive, was announced by IBM as a component of the
IBM 305 RAMAC The IBM 305 RAMAC was the first commercial computer that used a moving-head hard disk drive (magnetic disk storage) for secondary storage. The system was publicly announced on September 14, 1956,
computer system on September 14, 1956. Simultaneously a very similar product, the
IBM 355 IBM manufactured magnetic disk storage devices from 1956 to 2003, when it sold its hard disk drive business to Hitachi. Both the hard disk drive (HDD) and floppy disk drive (FDD) were invented by IBM and as such IBM's employees were responsible fo ...
, was announced for the
IBM 650 The IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine is an early digital computer produced by IBM in the mid-1950s. It was the first mass produced computer in the world. Almost 2,000 systems were produced, the last in 1962, and it was the first ...
RAMAC computer system. RAMAC stood for "Random Access Method of Accounting and Control". The first engineering prototype 350 disk storage shipped to Zellerbach Paper Company, San Francisco, in June 1956, with production shipment beginning in November 1957 with the shipment of a unit to United Airlines in Denver, Colorado. Its design was motivated by the need for real time accounting in business. The 350 stores 5 million 6-bit characters (3.75 MB). It has fifty-two diameter disks of which 100 recording surfaces are used, omitting the top surface of the top disk and the bottom surface of the bottom disk. Each surface has 100 tracks. The disks spin at 1200
rpm Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
. Data transfer rate is 8,800 characters per second. An access mechanism moves a pair of heads up and down to select a disk pair (one down surface and one up surface) and in and out to select a recording track of a surface pair. Several improved models were added in the 1950s. The IBM RAMAC 305 system with 350 disk storage leased for $3,200 per month. The 350 was officially withdrawn in 1969. from the RAMAC program is generally considered to be the fundamental patent for disk drives. This first-ever disk drive was initially cancelled by the IBM Board of Directors because of its threat to the IBM punch card business but the IBM San Jose laboratory continued development until the project was approved by IBM's president. The 350's cabinet is 60 inches (152 cm) long, 68 inches (172 cm) high and 29 inches (74 cm) wide. The RAMAC unit weighs about one ton, has to be moved around with forklifts, and was frequently transported via large cargo airplanes. According to Currie Munce, research vice president for
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies HGST, Inc. (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) was a manufacturer of hard disk drives, solid-state drives, and external storage products and services. It was initially a subsidiary of Hitachi, formed through its acquisition of IBM's disk d ...
(which acquired IBM's storage business), the storage capacity of the drive could have been increased beyond five million characters, but IBM's marketing department at that time was against a larger capacity drive, because they didn't know how to sell a product with more storage. Nonetheless, double capacity versions of the 350 were announced in January 1959 and shipped later the same year. In 1984, the RAMAC 350 Disk File was designated an International Historic Landmark by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 2002 at the Magnetic Disk Heritage Center a team led by
Al Hoagland Albert Smiley Hoagland ('Al Hoagland') (September 13, 1926 – October 1, 2022) had a long career on the development of hard disk drives (HDD) starting with the IBM RAMAC. From 1956 to 1984, he was with IBM in San Jose, California and then fr ...
began restoration of an IBM 350 RAMAC in collaboration with Santa Clara University. In 2005, the RAMAC restoration project relocated to the
Computer History Museum The Computer History Museum (CHM) is a museum of computer history, located in Mountain View, California. The museum presents stories and artifacts of Silicon Valley and the information age, and explores the computing revolution and its impact on ...
, Mountain View, California and is now demonstrated to the public in the museum's Revolution exhibition.


IBM 353

The IBM 353, used on the
IBM 7030 The IBM 7030, also known as Stretch, was IBM's first transistorized supercomputer. It was the fastest computer in the world from 1961 until the first CDC 6600 became operational in 1964."Designed by Seymour Cray, the CDC 6600 was almost three ...
, was similar to the IBM 1301, but with a faster transfer rate. It has a capacity of 2,097,152 (221) 64-bit words or 134,217,728 (227) bits and transferred 125,000 words per second. A prototype unit shipped in late 1960 was the first disk drive to use one head per surface flying on a layer of compressed air as in the older head design of the IBM 350 disk storage (RAMAC). Production 353s used self-flying heads essentially the same as those of the 1301.


IBM 355

The IBM 355 was announced on September 14, 1956, as an addition to the popular
IBM 650 The IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine is an early digital computer produced by IBM in the mid-1950s. It was the first mass produced computer in the world. Almost 2,000 systems were produced, the last in 1962, and it was the first ...
. It used the mechanism of the IBM 350 with up to three access arms and stored 6 million decimal digits and 600,000 signs. It transferred a full track to and from the
IBM 653 The IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine is an early digital computer produced by IBM in the mid-1950s. It was the first mass produced computer in the world. Almost 2,000 systems were produced, the last in 1962, and it was the firs ...
magnetic
core memory Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber * Core, the centra ...
, an IBM 650 option that stored just sixty signed 10-digit words, enough for a single track of disk or a tape record.


IBM 1405

The IBM 1405 Disk Storage Unit was announced in 1961 and was designed for use with the
IBM 1400 The IBM 1400 series were second-generation (transistor) mid-range business decimal computers that IBM marketed in the early 1960s. The computers were offered to replace tabulating machines like the IBM 407. The 1400-series machines stored infor ...
series, medium scale business computers. The 1405 Model 1 has a storage capacity of 10 million alphanumeric characters (60,000,000 bits) on 25 disks. Model 2 has a storage capacity of 20 million alphanumeric characters (120,000,000 bits) on 50 disks. In both models the disks are stacked vertically on a shaft rotating at 1200 rpm. Each side of each disk has 200 tracks divided into 5 sectors. Sectors 0–4 are on the top surface and 5–9 are on the bottom surface. Each sector holds either 178 or 200 characters. One to three forked-shaped access arms each contains two read/write heads, one for the top of the disk and the other for the bottom of the same disk. The access arms are mounted on a carriage alongside the disk array. During a seek operation an access arm moved, under electronic control, vertically to seek a disk 0–49 and then horizontally to seek a track 0–199. Ten sectors are available at each track. It takes about 10 ms to read or write a sector. The access time ranges from 100ms to a maximum access time for model 2 of 800ms and 700ms for model 1. The 1405 model 2 disk storage unit has 100,000 sectors containing either 200 characters in ''move mode'' or 178 characters in ''load mode'', which adds a '' word mark'' bit to each character. The Model 1 contains 50,000 sectors.


IBM 7300

The IBM 7300 Disk Storage Unit was designed for use with the
IBM 7070 IBM 7070 was a decimal-architecture intermediate data-processing system that was introduced by IBM in 1958. It was part of the IBM 700/7000 series, and was based on discrete transistors rather than the vacuum tubes of the 1950s. It was the compa ...
; IBM announced a model 2 in 1959, but when IBM announced the
1301 Year 1301 ( MCCCI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * January 14 – With the death of King Andrew III (the Venetian) (probably poisoned), ...
on June 5, 1961, 7070 and 7074 customers found it to be more attractive than the 7300. The 7300 uses the same technology as the
IBM 350 IBM manufactured magnetic disk storage devices from 1956 to 2003, when it sold its hard disk drive business to Hitachi. Both the hard disk drive (HDD) and floppy disk drive (FDD) were invented by IBM and as such IBM's employees were responsible ...
,
IBM 355 IBM manufactured magnetic disk storage devices from 1956 to 2003, when it sold its hard disk drive business to Hitachi. Both the hard disk drive (HDD) and floppy disk drive (FDD) were invented by IBM and as such IBM's employees were responsible fo ...
and
IBM 1405 IBM manufactured magnetic disk storage devices from 1956 to 2003, when it sold its hard disk drive business to Hitachi. Both the hard disk drive (HDD) and floppy disk drive (FDD) were invented by IBM and as such IBM's employees were responsible fo ...


IBM 1301

The IBM 1301 Disk Storage Unit was announced on June 2, 1961 with two models. It was designed for use with the
IBM 7000 series The IBM 700/7000 series is a series of large-scale (mainframe) computer systems that were made by IBM through the 1950s and early 1960s. The series includes several different, incompatible processor architectures. The 700s use vacuum-tube log ...
mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
s and the IBM 1410. The 1301 stores 28 million characters (168,000,000 bits) per module (25 million characters with the 1410). Each module has 25 large disks and 40 user recording surfaces, with 250 tracks per surface. The 1301 Model 1 has one module, the Model 2 has two modules, stacked vertically. The disks spin at 1800 rpm. Data is transferred at 90,000 characters per second. A major advance over the IBM 350 and IBM 1405 is the use of a separate arm and
head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...
for each recording surface, with all the arms moving in and out together like a big comb. This eliminates the time needed for the arm to pull the head out of one disk and move up or down to a new disk. Seeking the desired track is also faster since, with the new design, the head will usually be somewhere in the middle of the disk, not starting on the outer edge. Maximum access time is reduced to 180 milliseconds. The 1301 is the first disk drive to use heads that are aerodynamically designed to fly over the surface of the disk on a thin layer of air. This allows them to be much closer to the recording surface, which greatly improves performance. The 1301 connects to the computer via the IBM 7631 File Control. Different models of the 7631 allow the 1301 to be used with a 1410 or 7000 series computer, or shared between two such computers. The IBM 1301 Model 1 leased for $2,100 per month or could be purchased for $115,500. Prices for the Model 2 were $3,500 per month or $185,000 to purchase. The IBM 7631 controller cost an additional $1,185 per month or $56,000 to purchase. All models were withdrawn in 1970.


IBM 1302

The IBM 1302 Disk Storage Unit was introduced in September 1963. Improved recording quadrupled its capacity over that of the 1301, to 117 million 6-bit characters per module. Average access time is 165 ms and data can be transferred at 180 K characters/second, more than double the speed of the 1301. There are two access mechanisms per module, one for the inner 250 cylinders and the other for the outer 250 cylinders. As with the 1301, there is a Model 2 which doubles the capacity by stacking two modules. The IBM 1302 Model 1 leased for $5,600 per month or could be purchased for $252,000. Prices for the Model 2 were $7,900 per month or $355,500 to purchase. The IBM 7631 controller cost an additional $1,185 per month or $56,000 to purchase. The 1302 was withdrawn in February 1965.


IBM 1311

The IBM 1311 Disk Storage Drive was announced on October 11, 1962, and was designed for use with several medium-scale business and scientific computers. The 1311 is about the size and shape of a top-loading
washing machine A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a home appliance used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids and ...
and stores 2 million characters (12,000,000 bits) (or, in so-called "Load Mode" on an IBM 1401, a sector can hold 90 7-bit characters, or 12,600,000 bits total ) on a removable IBM 1316
disk pack Disk packs and disk cartridges were early forms of removable media for computer data storage, introduced in the 1960s. Disk pack A disk pack is a layered grouping of hard disk platters (circular, rigid discs coated with a magnetic data storage ...
. Seven models of the 1311 were introduced during the 1960s. They were withdrawn during the early 1970s. Each IBM 1316 Disk Pack is high, weighs 10 pounds (4.5 kg) and contains six diameter disks, yielding 10 recording surfaces (the outer surfaces are not used). The 10 individual read/write heads are mounted on a common actuator within the disk drive which moves in and out hydraulically and is mechanically detented at the desired track before reading or writing occurs. The disks spin at 1500 rpm. Each recording surface has 100 tracks with 20 sectors per track. Each sector stores 100 characters. The disk pack is covered with a clear plastic shell and a bottom cover when not in use. A lifting handle in the top center of the cover is rotated to release the bottom cover. Then the top of the 1311 drive is opened and the plastic shell lowered into the disk-drive opening (assuming it is empty). The handle is turned again to lock the disks in place and release the plastic shell, which is then removed and the drive cover closed. The process is reversed to remove a disk pack. The same methods are used for many later disk packs. There are seven models of the 1311 disk drive. The first drive attached to a system is a "master drive" which contains the controller and can control a number of Model 2 "slave drives." # Master drive on an
IBM 1440 The IBM 1440 computer was announced by IBM October 11, 1962. This member of the IBM 1400 series was described many years later as "essentially a lower-cost version of the 1401," and programs for the 1440 could easily be adapted to run on the IBM 14 ...
,
IBM 1460 Year 1460 ( MCDLX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 1460th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 460th year of the 2nd millennium, the 60th year ...
, or IBM 1240 system and can control up to four Model 2 drives. Introduced October 11, 1962. Withdrawn February 8, 1971. # Slave drive to a master drive. Can have any special feature incorporated that the master drive has incorporated. Introduced October 11, 1962. Withdrawn January 6, 1975. # Master drive on
IBM 1620 The IBM 1620 was announced by IBM on October 21, 1959, and marketed as an inexpensive scientific computer. After a total production of about two thousand machines, it was withdrawn on November 19, 1970. Modified versions of the 1620 were used as ...
or
IBM 1710 The IBM 1710 was a process control system that IBM introduced in March 1961. It used either a 1620 I or a 1620 II Computer and specialized I/O devices (e.g., IBM 1711 analog-to-digital converter and digital-to-analog converter, IBM 1712 discre ...
system and can control up to three Model 2 drives. Does not support any special features. Introduced October 11, 1962. Withdrawn May 12, 1971. # Master drive on an
IBM 1401 The IBM 1401 is a variable-wordlength decimal computer that was announced by IBM on October 5, 1959. The first member of the highly successful IBM 1400 series, it was aimed at replacing unit record equipment for processing data stored on pu ...
system and can control up to four Model 2 drives. Introduced October 11, 1962. Withdrawn February 8, 1971. # Master drive on an IBM 1410,
IBM 7010 The IBM 700/7000 series is a series of large-scale ( mainframe) computer systems that were made by IBM through the 1950s and early 1960s. The series includes several different, incompatible processor architectures. The 700s use vacuum-tube lo ...
, or IBM 7740 system and can control up to four Model 2 drives. Direct Seek comes as standard on this model. Introduced January 7, 1963. Withdrawn May 12, 1971. # No information available, probably a master drive. Introduced March 5, 1968. Withdrawn February 2, 1971. # No information available, probably a slave drive to Model 6. Introduced March 5, 1968. Withdrawn February 2, 1971. The optional special features are: * Direct Seek: Without this option every seek returns to track zero first. * Scan Disk: Automatic rapid search for identifier or condition. * Seek Overlap: Allows a seek to overlap a single read or write, and any number of other seeks, when multiple drives are in use. * Track Record: Increases the capacity of the disk by writing a single large record per track instead of using 20 separate sectors. A track can hold 2,980 characters in 6-bit 'Move Mode", and 2,682 7-bit characters in "Load Mode", giving the drive a total capacity of 17,880,000 bits in 6-bit mode, and 18,774,000 bits in 7-bit mode. The master drives, Models 1, 3, 4, and 5, which contain extra power supplies and the control logic, are about a foot wider than the Model 2 slave drive.


IBM System/360 and other IBM mainframe HDDs


IBM 2302

The IBM 2302 is the
System/360 The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applica ...
version of the 1302, with track formatting in accordance with S/360 DASD architecture rather than 7000 series architecture. It uses a non-removable module of 25 platters, of which 46 surfaces are used for recording. The 2302 Model 3 contains one module and the Model 4 two. There are two independent access mechanisms per module, one for the innermost 250 cylinders, and one for the outermost 250, tracks available to each access mechanism are called an ''access group''. The access mechanism provides one read/write head per track. Average rotational delay is 17 milliseconds (msec), and maximum is 34 msec. Maximum seek time per access group is 180 msec. The track size is 4985 bytes; with formatting information and alternate tracks, module capacity is stated as 112 MB. The 2302 attaches to IBM mainframes via a
IBM 2841 Beginning with its 1964 System/360 announcement, IBM's mainframes initially accessed CKD (Count key data) subsystems via a channel connected to separate Storage Control Units (SCUs) with attached Direct Access Storage Devices (DASD), typically a ...
Storage Control Unit.


IBM 2305

The IBM 2305 fixed head storage (a fixed-head disk drive sometimes incorrectly called a
drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...
) and associated IBM 2835 Storage Control were announced in 1970, initially to connect to the 360/85 and 360/195 using the IBM 2880
Block Multiplexor Channel Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96. ...
. The 2305 Drive was in much demand when the System 370 offered Virtual Storage, and these 2305s were often used for paging devices. They were used in this way on 3155, 3165, 3158, 3168, 3033, 4341, and 3081 (with special feature microcode.) The 2305 was also used for high activity small data sets such as catalogs and job queues. The 2305-1 runs at 3.0 MB/second when attached using the 2-byte channel interface, and the larger 2305-2 runs at 1.5 MB/second. The 2305 provides large-scale IBM computers with fast, continuous access to small-sized quantities of information. Its capacity and high data rate make it ideal for some systems residence functions, work files, job queues, indices and data sets that are used repeatedly. Its fast response time makes it attractive as a paging device in a heavily loaded systems, where there are 1.5 or more transactions per second.


IBM 2311

The IBM 2311 Disk Storage Drive was introduced with the 2841 Control Unit in 1964 for use throughout the IBM
System/360 The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applica ...
; the combination was also available on the
IBM 1130 The IBM 1130 Computing System, introduced in 1965, was IBM's least expensive computer at that time. A binary 16-bit machine, it was marketed to price-sensitive, computing-intensive technical markets, like education and engineering, succeeding th ...
and the
IBM 1800 The IBM 1800 Data Acquisition and Control System (DACS) was a process control variant of the IBM 1130 with two extra instructions (CMP and DCM), extra I/O capabilities, 'selector channel like' cycle-stealing capability and three hardware index regi ...
. The drive also directly attaches to the
IBM System/360 Model 20 The IBM System/360 Model 20 is the smallest member of the IBM System/360 family announced in November 1964. The Model 20 supports only a subset of the System/360 instruction set, with binary numbers limited to 16 bits and no floating point. In ...
and the
IBM System/360 Model 25 The IBM System/360 Model 25 is a low-end member of the IBM System/360 family. It was announced on January 3, 1968, 3 years before the IBM System/360 Model 22, as a "bridge between its old and new computing systems". History At a time when lower ...
. All drives used the IBM 1316 Disk Pack introduced with the IBM 1311. The 2311 Model 1 attaches to most IBM mainframes through a 2841 Control Unit; it attaches to the System/360 Model 25 thru a Disk Attachment Control which provides the function of the control unit. Disk packs are written in these attachments in IBM's
count key data Count key data (CKD) is a direct-access storage device (DASD) data recording format introduced in 1964, by IBM with its IBM System/360 and still being emulated on IBM mainframes. It is a self-defining format with each data record represented by a ...
variable record length format. The 2311 models 11 or 12 are used when attached to an integrated control of the System/360 Model 20 and the disk packs are written with a fixed sector format. The disk packs are not interchangeable between those written on the Model 1 and those written on the Models 11 or 12. The 2311 mechanism is largely identical to the 1311, but recording improvements allow higher data density. The 2311 stores 7.25 
megabyte The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Its recommended unit symbol is MB. The unit prefix ''mega'' is a multiplier of (106) in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one megabyte is one million bytes o ...
s on a single removable IBM 1316 disk pack (the same type used on the IBM 1311) consisting of six platters that rotate as a single unit. The 2311 has ten individual read/write (R/W) heads mounted on a common actuator which moves in and out hydraulically and is mechanically detented at the desired track before reading or writing occurred. Each recording surface has 200 tracks plus three optional tracks which can be used as alternatives in case faulty tracks are discovered. Average seek time is 85 ms. Data transfer rate is 156  kB/s. Because the 2311 was to be used with a wide variety of computers within the 360 product line, its electrical interconnection was standardized. This created an opportunity for other manufacturers to sell
plug compatible Plug compatible refers to " hardware that is designed to perform exactly like another vendor's product." The term PCM was originally applied to manufacturers who made replacements for IBM peripherals. Later this term was used to refer to IBM-co ...
disk drives for use with IBM computers and an entire industry was born.


IBM 2314/2319


IBM 2314 Disk Access Storage Facility Model 1

The IBM 2314 Disk Access Storage Facility Model 1 was introduced on April 22, 1965, one year after the
System/360 The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applica ...
introduction. It was used with the System/360 and the
System/370 The IBM System/370 (S/370) is a model range of IBM mainframe computers announced on June 30, 1970, as the successors to the System/360 family. The series mostly maintains backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path f ...
lines. With the Two Channel Switch feature it could interface with two 360/370 channels. The 2314 Disk access mechanism was similar to the 2311, but further recording improvements allowed higher data density. The 2314 stored 29,176,000 characters (200×20×7294 bytes per track) on a single removable IBM 2316 disk pack which was similar in design to the 1316 but was taller as a result of increasing the number of disks from six to eleven. The 2316 disk pack containing the eleven diameter disks yielded 20 recording surfaces. The drive access consisted of 20 individual R/W heads mounted on a common actuator which was moved in and out hydraulically and mechanically detented at the desired track before reading or writing occurred. Each recording surface has 200 tracks. Access time was initially the same as the 2311, but later models were faster as a result of improvements made in the hydraulic actuator. Data transfer rate was doubled to 310 kB/s. The original Model 1 consists nine disk drives bundled together with one price; separately shipped was a storage control unit, a single drive module, and two four drive modules for a total of nine drives. The drives are mounted in individual drawers that are unlatched and pulled out to access the disk pack. Because of their appearance they acquired the nickname of "Pizza Ovens". Only eight drives of the nine are available to the computer at any one time. The ninth drive is there for a spare for the user and can also be worked on "offline" by a Field Engineer while the other drives are in use by the customer. Each drive's system address is determined in part by a user-swappable plug, one such plug denoting a spare drive not system accessible. This permits physically changing the address of a drive by changing the plug. A 2844 Control Unit can be added to the 2314 Control Unit which allows two S/360 Channels simultaneous access to two separate disk drives in the Storage Facility. Other 2314 models came later:


IBM 2314 direct access storage facility - A series

In 1969 IBM unbundled the facility into separate models allowing up to nine drives (eight on line) attached to a 2314 Storage Control: * 2312 Disk Storage, a one drive module. * 2313 Disk Storage, a four drive module. * 2318 Disk Storage, a two drive module.


IBM 2319

* In a response to competition from plug compatible manufacturers of 2314 equivalent storage subsystems, IBM beginning 1970 introduced a series of low priced three drive module 2319s which were manufactured by removing one module from the four drive module 2313, rebranding it as a 2319 A1 and offering it at a substantially reduced rental price. This had the effect of lowering the rental price to new customers while keeping the high rental price on existing customers. The 2319-A1 attaches to integrated controllers for only the System/370 Models 135 and 145. Conventional 2314 DASD such as the 2312 or 2318 can attach to the 2319-A1 * 2319 B series of three disk drives modules allow three, six or nine drive attachment to a new 2314 Model B Storage Control Unit.


IBM 3310

IBM introduced the IBM 3310 Direct Access Storage Device on January 30, 1979, for IBM 4331
midrange computer Midrange computers, or midrange systems, were a class of computer systems that fell in between mainframe computers and microcomputers. This class of machine emerged in the 1960s, with models from Digital Equipment Corporation ( PDP line), Data G ...
s. Each drive had a capacity of 64.5 MB. The 3310 was a
fixed-block architecture Fixed-block architecture (FBA) is an IBM term for the hard disk drive (HDD) layout in which each addressable block (more commonly, sector) on the disk has the same size, utilizing 4 byte block numbers and a new set of command codes. FBA as a te ...
device, used on DOS/VSE and VM, the only S/370 operating systems that supported FBA devices.


IBM 3330

The IBM 3330 Direct Access Storage Facility, code-named ''Merlin'', was introduced in June 1970 for use with the IBM
System/370 The IBM System/370 (S/370) is a model range of IBM mainframe computers announced on June 30, 1970, as the successors to the System/360 family. The series mostly maintains backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path f ...
and the IBM
System 360 The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applic ...
/195. Its removable disk packs hold 100 MB (404×19×13,030 bytes). Access time was 30 ms and data transferred at 806 kB/s. A major advance introduced with the 3330 was the use of
error correction In information theory and coding theory with applications in computer science and telecommunication, error detection and correction (EDAC) or error control are techniques that enable reliable delivery of digital data over unreliable communica ...
, which makes the drives more reliable and reduced costs because small imperfections in the disk surface can be tolerated. The circuitry can correct error bursts up to 11 bits long through use of fire codes. The 1973 3330 Model 11 features IBM 3336-11 Disk Packs that held up to 200 MB (808x19x13,030 bytes).


IBM 3333

The 3333-1 and the 3333-11 contain two 3330 type drives and a controller that attach to a director type storage control. Up to three additional 3330 type DASD (six drives) can then be attached to a 3333. The 3330 was withdrawn in 1983.


IBM 3340 and 3344

The IBM 3340 and 3344 have similar characteristics. However, only a 3340 can serve as head of string; there are no A model 3344 drives, and a 3344 must be attached to a 3340 A model as head of string.


IBM 3340

The IBM 3340 Direct Access Storage Facility, code-named ''Winchester'', was introduced in March 1973 for use with IBM
System/370 The IBM System/370 (S/370) is a model range of IBM mainframe computers announced on June 30, 1970, as the successors to the System/360 family. The series mostly maintains backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path f ...
. Three models were announced, the 3340-A2 with two drives and a controller, the models B2 (two drives) and B1 (one drive). B-units can connect to the model A2 to a maximum of eight drives. It uses removable data modules that included the head and arm assembly; an access door of the data module opens or closes during a mechanical load/unload process to connect the data module to the drive; unlike previous disk packs and cartridges there is no cover to remove during the insertion process. Access time is 25 millisecond and data transfers at 885 kB/s. Three versions of the removable IBM 3348 Data Module were sold, one with 35 megabyte capacity, another with 70 megabytes, the third also has 70 megabytes, of which 500 kilobytes were accessible with fixed heads for faster access. The 3340 also uses
error correction In information theory and coding theory with applications in computer science and telecommunication, error detection and correction (EDAC) or error control are techniques that enable reliable delivery of digital data over unreliable communica ...
. It was withdrawn in 1984. The 3340 was developed in San Jose under the leadership of Ken Haughton. Early on the design was focused on two removable 30 megabyte modules. Because of this 30/30 configuration, the code name ''Winchester'' was selected after the famous Winchester .30-30 rifle; subsequently the capacities were increased, but the code name stuck. One significant aspect of this product, and the reason that disk drives in general became known as "Winchester technology", was that this head design was very low cost and did not require the heads to be unloaded from the media. Winchester technology allowed the head to land and take off from the disk media as the disk spun up and down. This resulted in very significant savings and a large reduction of complexity of the head and arm actuating mechanism. This head design rapidly became a standard design within the disk drive manufacturing community. Up into the early 1990s the term ''Winchester'' or ''Winnie'' was used for hard disk drives in general long after the introduction of the 3340, but is no longer in common use in most parts of the world.


IBM 3344

The IBM 3344 is similar to the 3340, except that it uses fixed media rather than removable 3348 data modules, each spindle has 4 logical drives each with the capacity of a 3348–70, there is no A (head of string) model and it is only available in dual drive models. The 3344-B2F is identical to the 3344-B2 except that both drives have fixed heads over some cylinders. Both 3344-B2 and 3344-B2F require a 3340-A2 or 3340-A2F as head of string.


IBM 3350

The IBM 3350 Direct Access Storage Facility, code-named ''Madrid'', was introduced in 1975 for use with
IBM System/370 The IBM System/370 (S/370) is a model range of IBM mainframe computers announced on June 30, 1970, as the successors to the System/360 family. The series mostly maintains backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path f ...
. Its non-removable head-disk assemblies (HDAs) are sealed and included the head and arm assembly. The 3350 disk geometry is 555 cylinders, 30 heads, and 19,069 bytes per track, which give each HDA a storage capacity of 317,498,850 bytes. Sealed HDAs were standard practice on all IBM DASD hereafter. Disk units are identified as Models A2, A2F, B2, B2F, C2, and C2F with each model containing two HDAs. The models are installed in strings of units with an A2 or A2F unit required and attached to a storage control such as the IBM 3830 Model 2 or the equivalent integrated storage control of a system unit. After the A2 can be up to 3 B2 units or up to 2 B2s and a C2. The C2 unit also connects to a storage control and serves as a secondary path to itself and the A2 and B2 units. When using a C2 two I/O operations could simultaneously take place on the string, one via an A2 and a second via the C2. The valid 3350 strings are: -A, -AB, -ABB, -ABBB, -AC-, -ABC-, or -ABBC- configurations. The "x2F", as in Model A2F, unit is a normal x2 unit, but its two HDAs also have a Fixed Head area over the first five cylinders, thereby reducing seek time to zero for these five cylinders. This fixed head area is intended to be allocated to the frequently accessed HASP or JES2 checkpoint area and thus greatly reduce head motion on the SPOOL device. The fixed head area can also be utilized for TSO swap data ( MVT and SVS) and system swap data (
MVS Multiple Virtual Storage, more commonly called MVS, was the most commonly used operating system on the System/370 and System/390 IBM mainframe computers. IBM developed MVS, along with OS/VS1 and SVS, as a successor to OS/360. It is unrelated ...
) wherein the swap data for SVS and MVS consist of blocks of pages that have been in memory when an address space is selected for swap-out; those pages need not be contiguous and in general do not include pages that have not been modified since their last page-in. This system architecture greatly improves context switches between TSO users or batch regions. The IBM 3350 family was withdrawn in September 1994.


IBM 3370 and 3375


IBM 3370

IBM introduced the IBM 3370 Direct Access Storage Device in January 1979 for IBM 4331, 4341, and
System/38 The System/38 is a discontinued minicomputer and midrange computer manufactured and sold by IBM. The system was announced in 1978. The System/38 has 48-bit addressing, which was unique for the time, and a novel integrated database system. It w ...
midrange computer Midrange computers, or midrange systems, were a class of computer systems that fell in between mainframe computers and microcomputers. This class of machine emerged in the 1960s, with models from Digital Equipment Corporation ( PDP line), Data G ...
s. It has seven fixed disks, and each unit has a capacity of 571 MB. It was the first HDD to use
thin-film head A disk read-and-write head is the small part of a disk drive which moves above the disk platter and transforms the platter's magnetic field into electrical current (reads the disk) or, vice versa, transforms electrical current into magnetic fi ...
technology; research on that technology started at
Thomas J. Watson Research Center The Thomas J. Watson Research Center is the headquarters for IBM Research. The center comprises three sites, with its main laboratory in Yorktown Heights, New York, U.S., 38 miles (61 km) north of New York City, Albany, New York and wit ...
in the late 1960s. The 3370 was a
fixed-block architecture Fixed-block architecture (FBA) is an IBM term for the hard disk drive (HDD) layout in which each addressable block (more commonly, sector) on the disk has the same size, utilizing 4 byte block numbers and a new set of command codes. FBA as a te ...
device, used on DOS/VSE and VM, the only S/370 operating systems that supported FBA devices.


IBM 3375

The sister unit was called the IBM 3375 and used
count key data Count key data (CKD) is a direct-access storage device (DASD) data recording format introduced in 1964, by IBM with its IBM System/360 and still being emulated on IBM mainframes. It is a self-defining format with each data record represented by a ...
architecture, which was required for OS/360 and successor OSes.


IBM 3380

The IBM 3380 Direct Access Storage Device was introduced in June 1980. It uses film head technology and has a unit capacity of 2.52 gigabytes (two hard disk assemblies each with two independent actuators each accessing 630 MB within one chassis) with a data transfer rate of 3 megabytes per second. Average access time was 16 ms. Purchase price at time of introduction ranged from $81,000 to $142,200. Due to
tribology Tribology is the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative Motion (physics), motion. It includes the study and application of the principles of friction, lubrication and wear. Tribology is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on m ...
problems encountered between heads and media, the first units did not ship until October 1981. In February 1985 IBM announced a double density version – the Extended Capability Models of the 3380 (3380 E) having 5.04 gigabytes per chassis, that is, two 1.26 gigabyte actuators on two hard disk assemblies in one chassis. A triple capacity version, the 3380 K was announced in August 1987 having 7.562 gigabytes per chassis, that is, two 1.89 gigabyte actuators on two hard disk assemblies in one chassis. There are twelve models of the IBM 3380 family: six A-units, five B-units and one C-unit. A-units (heads of string) contain additional logic to perform string controller functions and connect to IBM
directors Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...
or equivalent integrated attachments. The C-units connect to an IBM channel rather than a director. B-units connected to A-units or C-units. A string of 3380s with 16 actuators could provide from 10.08 gigabytes to 60.5 gigabytes, depending on model configuration. The last models were withdrawn by IBM in May 1996 representing a production run of 15 years; a run longer than most disk drives


IBM 3390

The IBM 3390 Direct Access Storage Device series was introduced November 1989, offering a maximum storage of up to 22 gigabytes in a string of multiple drives. Cost of a storage system varied by configuration and capacity, between $90,000 and $795,000. Packaged in Hard Disk Assemblies with 2 actuator-head units and one set of platters, a model 1 HDA provides 1.89 GB before formatting and a model 2 provides 3.78 GB/HDA. The Model 3 enhancement to the drive family, announced September 11, 1991, increased capacity 1.5 times to 5.67 GB/HDA and the Model 9, announced May 20, 1993, further increased capacity 3 times to 11.3 GB/HDA, totaling 34 GB in a single cabinet, or 544 GB per storage subsystem. The 3390 Model 9 was the last Single Large Expensive Disk (sometimes called SLEDs) drive announced by IBM.


IBM 9340 and 9345


IBM 9345

The IBM 9345 HDD first shipped in Nov 1990 as an
RPQ Request price quotation or RPQ is a long-standing IBM designation for a product or component that is potentially available, but that is not on the "standard" price list. Typical RPQ offerings are custom interfaces, hardware modifications, researc ...
on IBMs SCSE (SuperComputing Systems Extensions). Developed at IBM's San Jose, California laboratory under the code name Sawmill. It was an up to 1.5 GB full height 5-inch HDD using up to 8 130 mm disks. It was the first HDD to use MR (Magneto Resistive) heads.


IBM 9340

In October 1991 the 9345 DASD was announced as part of the IBM 9340 channel-attached, count key data (CKD) DASD subsystem family which attached to IBM mainframes including the ES/9000 processor family. The 9345 DASD Model 1 had two 1.0 GB HDDs while the Model 2 had two 1.5 GB HDDs. For most practical applications, the 9340/9345 was functionally equivalent to a 3990/3390, although without non-volatile RAM cache of the 3990 and with a somewhat shorter maximum block length than the 3390. The OS's
IOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
component learned of this device's characteristics through a special initializer, IECCINIT, which also serviced other DASD device types, and for the same purpose. It was at initialization-time that the OS learned that the 9340 has no non-volatile cache and the 9345 has a shorter than expected track capacity. The initializer, therefore, assigned a different device type than the 3990/3390.


9330 family of disk drives

# 9331 Diskette Unit models 1 and 11 contained one 8-inch FDD while the models 2 and 12 contained one 5-inch FDD. # 9332 Direct Access Storage Device used the IBM 0667 HDD. # 9333 High Performance Disk Drive Subsystem used the IBM 0664 or IBM 0681 HDDs depending upon subsystem model # 9334 Disk Expansion Unit attaches from one to four SCSI HDDs to the RS/6000 system. # 9335 Direct Access Storage Subsystem This HDD used in this subsystem was developed under the code name "Kestrel" at IBM Hursley, UK, and was an 850 MB HDD using three 14-inch disks with dual
rotary actuator A rotary actuator is an actuator that produces a rotary motion or torque. The simplest actuator is purely mechanical, where linear motion in one direction gives rise to rotation. The most common actuators are electrically powered; others may be p ...
s, each actuator accessing three surfaces with two heads per surface. The HDD was in the rack mountable 9335 announced as a part of the October 1986
IBM 9370 The IBM 9370 systems are "baby mainframe" midrange computers, released 1986 at the very low end of, and compatible with System/370. The media of the day, referring to the VAX systems manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), carried ...
Information System announcement. There is no known OEM version of this HDD. # 9336 Disk Unit used the IBM 0681 HDD (Redwing)1993 Disk/Trend Report – Rigid Disk Drives, p. RESPEC-61 # 9337 Disk Array Subsystem used the IBM 0662 (Spitfire) or 0663 (Corsair) HDDs.


HDDs offered for IBM small systems


IBM 2310

The IBM 2310 Removable Cartridge Drive was announced in 1964 with the
IBM 1800 The IBM 1800 Data Acquisition and Control System (DACS) was a process control variant of the IBM 1130 with two extra instructions (CMP and DCM), extra I/O capabilities, 'selector channel like' cycle-stealing capability and three hardware index regi ...
, and then in 1965 with the
IBM 1130 The IBM 1130 Computing System, introduced in 1965, was IBM's least expensive computer at that time. A binary 16-bit machine, it was marketed to price-sensitive, computing-intensive technical markets, like education and engineering, succeeding th ...
; it likely first shipped with the 1130 in late 1965. It could store 512,000 16-bit words (1,024,000 bytes) on an IBM 2315 cartridge. A single oxide-coated aluminum disk spun in a plastic shell with openings for the read/write arm and two heads.


IBM 5444

The IBM 5444 was announced September 1969 as part of System/3. Developed at IBM's Hursley, England, laboratory under code name DolphinHistory of Disk-File Development at Hursley and Millbrook, W. J. P. Case, IBM, October 17, 1990 it used the 5440 disk cartridge. The cartridge in turn contained one 14-inch disk. There were three models: * Model 1 has one fixed disk and one removable disk each with 100 tracks per surface for a disk cartridge capacity of 1.23 MB * Model 2 has one fixed disk and one removable disk each with 200 tracks per surface for a disk cartridge capacity of 2.46 MB * Model 3 has only one removable disk with 200 tracks per surface for a disk cartridge capacity of 2.46 MB


IBM 62GV

The 62GV first shipped in May 1974. Developed at IBM's Hursley, UK, laboratory under the code name Gulliver with an initial capacity of 5 MB. Subsequent models have 10 MB (62TM) and 14 MB capacities. It used a Swinging Arm actuator with one 14-inch disk. The simple design of the actuator, invented at IBM's UK Hursley Labs, became IBM's most licensed electro-mechanical invention of all time, the actuator and filtration system being adopted in the 1980s eventually for all HDDs, and still universal nearly 40 years and 10 Billion arms later. During its production life the IBM 62GV shipped 177,000 units making it the first HDD known to have shipped in excess of 100,000 units.


OEM and Small Systems HDDs

This section lists IBM manufactured HDDs offered both as an OEM product and for attachment to IBMs small systems such as the System/3, System/32, /34 & /36 and the AS/400. HDDs are identified by their OEM model number and listed chronologically by date of first customer shipment.


IBM 0680

The 0680 first shipped in 1979 on most IBM small systems and the low end of the System/370 as the 3310 direct access storage. The OEM version was announced as the 0680 in September 1981. Developed at IBM's Hursley, UK, laboratory under the code name Piccolo with an initial capacity of up to 65MB, it used six 8-inch disks (210 mm) and had an improved rotary actuator. A double capacity version, the 62SW, shipped in June 1984 but very few units were sold because its price per megabyte was the same as the 62GV.


IBM 0676

The 0676 first shipped in November 1982 as a 5247 Disk Storage Unit for the
IBM System/23 Datamaster The System/23 Datamaster (Model 5322 desktop model and Model 5324 floor model) was announced by IBM in July 1981. The Datamaster was the least expensive IBM computer until the far less expensive and far more popular IBM PC was announced in the fo ...
. Developed at the IBM Rochester, MN, laboratory as the 21ED it was an 8-inch HDD with an initial capacity of 15 or 30 MB in 2 or 4 210 mm disks. In 1983 it shipped as the HDD in the 5360 System Unit of the S/36. In 1984 its capacity was doubled by doubling the number of tracks per surface and it was incorporated into the 5362 System Unit of the System/36.


IBM 0665

The 0665 first shipped in October 1985 in the system unit for the PC AT (5170). Developed under the code name "Pixie" at IBM Rochester, MN, it was a 5-inch HDD with capacities of 20, 30 and 44 MB.


IBM 0667

The 0667 first shipped in August 1986. Developed at IBM Rochester, MN, under the code name "Grant", it was a 70 MB ESDI full height 5-inch HDD with up to 4 130 mm disks. It was offered as a feature on certain models of the PC RT (6150, 6151, 6152) and in System/36 Model System Units (5363, 5364).


IBM 0669

The 0669 first shipped in 1987. Developed at IBM Rochester, MN, under the code name "Grant-Prime", it was a full-height 5-inch HDD with a capacity of up to 115 MB on up to 4 130 mm disks.1991 Disk/Trend Report – Rigid Disk Drives It was the HDD internal to the System/36 5363 System Unit and Series 1 4956 System Unit.


IBM 0671

The 0671 first shipped in 1987. Developed under the code name "Lee" at IBM Rochester, MN, it was an up to 316 MB ESDI full height 5-inch HDD with up to 8 130 mm disks depending upon model. This was IBM's first usage of a thin metal film as the disk's recording surface. In 1988 it shipped as part of the 9404 System Unit of the IBM AS/400 system which contained two, or optionally three of these HDDs.


IBM 0661

The 0661 first shipped in 1989 as the model 371.1990 Disk/Trend Report – Rigid Disk Drives Developed initially under the code name "Lightning" at IBM Rochester MN (and IBM Hursley, UK) as a 320 MB SCSI HDD with up to eight 95 mm disks (14 heads), it was followed in 1990 with a 400 MB version, code named "Turbo". During 1990 it was added as a standard drive on several major IBM systems, e.g., IBM AS/400 System Unit Model CXX.


IBM 0681

The 0681 first shipped in April 1990. Developed at IBM's Hursley, UK, laboratory under the code name Redwing, it was the last HDD product developed at Hursley. It was an up to 857 MB full height 5-inch HDD using up to 12 130 mm disks. It was the first HDD to use
PRML In computer data storage, partial-response maximum-likelihood (PRML) is a method for recovering the digital data from the weak analog read-back signal picked up by the head of a magnetic disk drive or tape drive. PRML was introduced to recover ...
decoding of data. It was the drive component of the 9333 Disk Drive Subsystem which first shipped in early 1992. A higher density, 1.07 GB, version was incorporated into the 9333 subsystem in May 1992.


IBM 0663

The 0663 first shipped in late 1991. Developed under the code name "Corsair", it was a 3-inch HDD with the height of a 5-inch half-height device (1.6-inch high) and up to 1 GB on up to 8 95 mm disks.1992 Disk/Trend Report – Rigid Disk Drives It was offered as a feature on certain models of the PS/2 and RS/6000. It was the first OEM disk drive to use MR Heads.


IBM 0664

The 0664 first shipped in November 1992. Developed under the code name "Allicat" at IBM Rochester, MN, it was a full-height 5-inch HDD (3.25-inch high) that combined two 3-inch devices in one, with up to 2.013 GB capacity on up to 8 95 mm disks.1995 Disk/Trend Report – Rigid Disk Drives


IBM 0662

The 0662 first shipped in June 1993. Developed under the code name "Spitfire" at IBM Rochester, MN, it was a full-height (1-inch high) 3-inch HDD with 1.05 GB on 3 disks or 5 disk surfaces. It was the HDD internal to the 9336 Disk Unit and the 9337 Disk Array.


Floppy disk drive

Another important IBM innovation is the
floppy disk drive A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
. IBM first introduced the 8-inch FDD in 1971 as a read only program load device. In 1973 IBM shipped its first read/write floppy disk drive as a part of the 3740 Data Entry System. IBM established early standards in 8" FDDs but never sold such products separately so that the industry then developed separate from IBM. IBM was at one point was the world's largest purchaser of OEM 5-inch FDDs; its selection of the two-sided, 48 tpi model helped establish the model as the de facto industry standard. IBM made extensive preparations to manufacture such models and smaller form factors but cancelled all such efforts in 1985. IBM's 1983 attempt to OEM its 4-inch DemiDisk failed.1983 Disk/Trend Report – Flexible Disk Drives, December 1983 p. MFGR-7


"Star" series of HDDs

On October 17, 1994, IBM's Storage Systems division announced three new families of hard disk drives, the
Travelstar Travelstar was a brand of 2.5-inch hard disk drives (HDD) that was manufactured by Western Digital. The brand was originally introduced by IBM in 1994 with the announcement of the Travelstar LP, a 2.5-inch 300MB 12.5 mm high HDD. IBM began ship ...
2-inch family for notebooks, the
Deskstar The Deskstar was the name of a product line of computer hard disk drives. It was originally announced by IBM in October 1994. The line was continued by Hitachi when in 2003 it bought IBM's hard disk drive division and renamed it Hitachi Global ...
3-inch family for desktop applications and the Ultrastar 3-inch family for high performance computer system applications.


IBM's first HDD versus its last HDDs

The following table compares IBM's first HDD, the RAMAC 350, with the last three models it manufactured in each of its "Star" series of OEM HDDs. It illustrates HDD's spectacular decline in cost and size along with corresponding improvement in capacity and performance.


DASD devices not HDDs or FDDs

IBM in some of its operating systems classifies HDDs and FDDs as DASDs, direct access storage devices. Other technologies so classified include:


IBM 7320 drum

The
IBM 7320 In addition to the drums used as main memory by IBM, e.g., IBM 305, IBM 650, IBM offered drum devices as secondary storage for the 700/7000 series and System/360 series of computers. IBM 731 The IBM 731 is a discontinued storage unit used o ...
is a magnetic drum storage unit announced in 1962.


IBM 2301 drum

The IBM 2301 is a magnetic drum storage device introduced in the late 1960s


IBM 2303 drum

The IBM 2303 is a magnetic drum storage device introduced in 1964.


IBM 2321 Data Cell

The
IBM 2321 Data Cell The IBM 2321 Data Cell announced in April 1964 (withdrawn January 1975) is a discontinued direct access storage device (DASD) for the IBM System/360. It holds up to 400 megabytes of data, with an access time of 95 milliseconds to 600 milliseconds ...
announced in 1964 is a device that uses short strips of magnetic tape to store data. It holds 10 40 MB removable ''cells'', for a total capacity of 400 MB.


IBM 3850 Mass Storage System

The IBM 3850 Mass Storage System, announced in 1974, is a library system of tape cartridges that staged data from the cartridges onto physical IBM 3330 or 3350 disk drives which then appeared to the system as virtual 3330 drives.


See also

*
History of the floppy disk A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium encased in a rectangular plastic carrier. It is read and written using a floppy disk drive (FDD). Floppy disks were an almost universal data fo ...
*
History of hard disk drives In 1953, IBM recognized the immediate application for what it termed a "Random Access File" having high capacity and rapid random access at a relatively low cost."Proposal – Random Access File," A. J. Critchlow, IBM RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT LAB ...
*
List of IBM products The following is a partial list of products, services, and subsidiaries of International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation and its predecessor corporations, beginning in the 1890s. This list is eclectic; it includes, for example, the ''AN/FS ...


Notes


References

{{reflist


External links


IBM Archive: Storage basic information sources



Magnetic Disk Heritage Center

A Quarter Century of Disk File Innovation
IBM Journal of Research and Development, 1981


IBM 1311 Disk storage drive

IBM 2314 Direct access storage

Floppy
History of computing hardware IBM storage devices Hard disk computer storage