> On Jun 10, 2026, at 7:32 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> Didn't show up on the list, so re-sending it:
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:14:39 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Fred Cisin <[email protected]>
> Subject: [cctalk] Ramac : The real first disk drive? (Was: Floppy disk
>
> The first known and recognized disk drive of ANY type (hard disk preceded
> floppy) was the Ramac, 70 years ago, 1956
>
> https://www.computerhistory.org/storageengine/first-commercial-hard-disk-drive-shipped/
>
> First one shipped was to Crown-Zellerbach Paper Company
>
> CHM says June;
>
> EDN and Google AI (Gemini) say September 13, 1956
> https://www.edn.com/ibm-intros-1st-computer-disk-storage-unit-september-13-1956/
>
> But, Gemini seems to also hallucinate RAMAC as being a company!
> "At the 1958 Worlds Fair, RAMAC showcased its revolutionary random-access
> capabilities by answering world history questions in 10 different languages."
> (There was no Ramac Company exhibiting at the 1958 Worlds Fair)
>
> Ramac had fifty 2 foot diameter double sided platters, and could hold a total
> of about 5MB. Modern drives can have even higher density!
> I have a crashed Ramac platter, that I have made into a patio table, with the
> platter under glass.
"Higher density" indeed. One of the first hard drives I used was 128 kB (DEC
RC11/RS64).
One peculiar aspect of the RAMAC is that it only had one head, or one pair, so
track switching was a lot slower than cylinder switching: it had to retract all
the way, then move the head vertically to the correct track, then seek in again
to the right cylinder.
paul
