old processor architectures [was Re: The Strange Birth and Long Life of Unix - IEEE Spectrum]

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org

| They had a 64K hard drive attached to the computer. The
| drive was enormous - it just barely fit into a 19 inch rack and sounded
| like a washing machine on spin cycle.

Really?  My recollection was that they were fixed-head disks, hence
the low capacity.  They should have been quiet.  I don't know -- I
used one in a noisy room.

<http://www.pdp8.net/dfds32/dfds32.shtml>

In the picture, it looks to be about a foot high.  About the same
heigth as a PDP-8s, I would guess.

I used a PDP-8/S (with only an ASR-33 for IO) and a PDP-8/I (with said
drive) in 1968/69.

There was a noticeable speed difference.  But the disk was way better
than the ASR-33.  It was lucky that big programs would not fit on the
machine.

I still have some paper tapes for them.
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