Ferranti Magnetic Drum
physical object
2010.1.27
Description
Ferranti Magnetic Drum, circa 1961, used for secondary storage with a capacity of 16,000 words. Magnetic drum technology was a precursor to the magnetic hard drive; both used used a spinning magnetic surface that could be read or written to by sets of fixed read/write heads.In the photo, you can't see the drum on the interior, but you can see the read/write heads on the long axis of the drum cylinder and which are connected to the thick white cables running around the base.
Related Collection
Storage devices exhibitRelated Donors
Systems Design Undergraduate LabEvan Wolfe