Actually, no :-) The 650 had a drum for main storage. The "355 Random Access Mem... | Hacker News

Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit

		kens 6 months ago \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: "Special register groups" invaded computer diction... Actually, no :-) The 650 had a drum for main storage. The "355 Random Access Memory" was something different, an optional hard drive peripheral, which IBM literally called "RAM" (see the link above). This became the RAMAC system.

Animats 6 months ago [–]

Right, you could add a RAMAC disk, but that was a very expensive option. Many universities had IBM 650s, but usually without the RAMAC.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact