[OT] paper on Retro ?

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Sun Oct 20 18:34:00 2002

> I thought that the
> original
> usage for the diskettes was as an IPL storage to initialize the
> microcode on some early 360 mainframes.

Not on the 360, but on the 370 and in peripheral controllers such as
that of the 3330 (or was it the 3380?) disk drive. The original floppy
drive was called Minnow. Although it used 8-inch media, it wasn't the same
as the format they later standardized. The drives in the equipment were
read-only, and the track count was not 77, though I don't know what it was.
The index/sector hole was near the edge of the disk rather than near the
spindle. And it spun in the opposite direction! It stored a little over
80 Kbytes.

> I seem to recall seeing some (non IBM) key-to-disk machines that operated
> like a keypunch but it produced one card image per sector on those 8 inch
> floppies. Anyone know who made these? Was it IBM and if so, what was
> the equipment designation?

IBM 3740, circa 1973
Received on Sun Oct 20 2002 - 18:34:00 BST