One of the early proof-of-concept designs for the Friden 130
(
http://oldcalculatormuseum.com/friden130.html) used a magnetic drum,
but in final production,
the machine used a magnetostrictive delay line. The Canon 167
(
http://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/w-can167.html) used a small magnetic
drum for register
storage. Also, the Wyle Laboratories WS-01 (precursor to the WS-02,
seen at
http://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/w-wyle.html), an interesting
and very early programmable calculator used a small magnetic disc
memory. More information at
http://oldcalculatormuseum.com/d-compucorp.html.
Not many Wyle Labs WS-01's were sold. They had a lot of troubles with
the small disc memory, which prompted the retooling to use a
magnetostrictive delay line as the WS-02. So far as I know now, the
only machine that used a mag disc/drum that was sold in production
quantities was the Canon 167.
Earlier 'desk-sized' (not desktop) calculators, such as the Monroe
Monrobot I and II, the Clary DE-60, SCM 7816, and others, used magnetic
drum memory almost exclusively.
Rick Bensene
The Old Calculator Web Museum
---
I wrote, and Sellam replied:
>
> > This technology was actually used into the early 1970's, as it was
> > inexpensive compared to other technologies such as discrete
> > transistor flip flops, magnetic core memory, small-scale IC flip
> > flops, and small magnetic drum memory.
>
> Small magnetic drum memory? Neat! How small? What
> calculator models used that type of memory?
Received on Sun Jun 13 2004 - 10:16:30 BST