A hard disk drive is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage, with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated in magnetic material. IBM developed the first disk drive, led by a team under Reynold Johnson, completing the design on December 24, 1954, and shipping the first production model, the IBM 350, in 1957. The IBM 350 became the dominant secondary storage device for general-purpose computers from the early 1960s onward, and hard disk drives have remained a mainstay of servers and personal computers ever since, though solid-state drives now compete with them for most consumer uses.
Facts
YearSourced to the subject's own account SignificanceSourced to the subject's own accountThe IBM 350 for the 305 RAMAC, introduced in 1956, was the first disk drive. Hard disk drives became the dominant secondary storage device for general purpose computers from the early 1960s, a position they held into the era of servers and personal computers, with the actuator and filtration design pioneered on the 1974 IBM swinging arm mechanism becoming nearly universal across the industry that followed. 1 Hard Disk Drive
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FAQs
What was the Winchester hard disk drive and why did it matter?
It was IBM's 1973 drive whose heads landed on a special area of the platter instead of being fully withdrawn.
In 1973 IBM introduced a new type of hard disk drive code-named Winchester. Its primary distinguishing feature was that the disk heads were not withdrawn completely from the stack of disk platters when the drive was powered down. Instead, the heads were allowed to land on a special area of the disk surface when the platters spun down.
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Associated With
Neodymium magnets drive the voice-coil actuator that positions a hard disk drive head.
Neodymium, a rare earth element, is the basis of the strong magnets in a hard disk drive voice-coil actuator.
Source Reynold Johnson (Lemelson-MIT)
In Field
Source Hard Disk Drive (Wikipedia)
Invented By
Source Reynold Johnson (Lemelson-MIT)
Sources
1. Hard Disk Drive (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead paragraph 2, sentence 1
IBM introduced the first disk drive, the 350 for the 305 RAMAC, in 1956, and disks were the dominant secondary storage device for general-purpose computers beginning in the early 1960s.
History section, 1970s paragraph on the IBM GV actuator
the actuator and filtration system being adopted in the 1980s eventually for all HDDs, and still universal over 50 years and 10 billion arms later
- In Group: Computer Data Storage Devices and Media, A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical computer data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more...
In Field: Computer Engineering, Categories
Rotating disc computer storage media
View the Source Reynold Johnson (Lemelson-MIT)
Associated With: Reynold B. Johnson, Profile
In late 1955, Johnson and his team presented the first-ever functioning hard drive to IBM management.
Invented By: Reynold B. Johnson, Profile
In late 1955, Johnson and his team presented the first-ever functioning hard drive to IBM management.
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