General Information

Serial #

415

Part Number

1

Total Parts

3

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

METAL CASING & PARTS/ SYNTHETIC WINDOW, CONTROLS, PARTS

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

245.0 cm

Width

82.6 cm

Height

159.0 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Computing Technology

Category

Digital peripheral devices

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Sperry

Country

United States of America

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

AFTER 1968 TO BEFORE 1978

Canada

EQUIPMENT USED BY COMPUTEL, THE FIRST CANADIAN COMPUTER UTILITY TO ISSUE SHARES AS A PUBLIC COMPANY, IN 1967. IT PROVIDED CLIENTS WITH COMPUTING POWER OVER-THE-COUNTER OR BY TELEPHONE LINK. IT EXPANDED INTO ANATION-WIDE COMPUTER SERVICE NETWORK & WAS BOUGHT IN 1982 BY CANADA SYSTEMS GROUP.

Function

A PERIPHERAL DATA STORAGE DEVICE USED FOR MASS STORAGE OF COMPUTER DATA AS MAGNETIZED AREAS ON CIRCULAR TRACKS ON THE POLISHED METAL SURFACE OF A DRUM.

Technical

DEVELOPED IN THE EARLY 1950'S, THE MAGNETIC DRUM PROVIDED RANDOM-ACCESS MASS-STORAGE OF DATA, IT WAS SO SLOW THAT IT WAS RARELY USED FOR INTERNAL MEMORY BUT MORE OFTEN AS PERIPHERAL STORAGE. THIS LATE 1960'S UNIT WAS USED, IN CONJUNCTION WITH A CONTROLLER, WITH A NUMBER OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

PLATE READING 'PROPERTY OF UNIVAC/ DIVISION OF/ SPERRY RAND/ CORPORATION/ MADE IN U.S.A.' WITH PATENT INFO./ GREY METAL STRIP WITH METALLIC LETTERING READING 'FASTRAND MASS STORAGE 105'/ WHITE CONTROL FUNCTION LETTERING

Missing

UNKNOWN

Finish

TEXTURED BEIGE PAINTED CASING WITH TEXTURED BLUE PAINTED SIDE PANELS/ SMOKED SYNTHETIC WINDOW WITH ORANGE PAINTED FRAME/ BRUSHED METAL TRIM/ RED & GREEN BUTTONS

Decoration

N/A