MAGNETIC DISK HERITAGE CENTER

INTRODUCTION

The history of the magnetic disk storage of digital data started with the creation of an entirely new device, the RAMAC disk drive, in the 1950’s.  Magnetic disk storage has been and still is the key to the emergence and growth of the Internet, personal computers, business and consumer applications all dependent on immediate access to recording or retrieving selective information stored in massive databases that are nonvolatile.  The RAMAC itself stored 5 million characters and at the time this capacity required recording on both sides of a stack of 50 disks, each two feet in diameter.

The Magnetic Disk Heritage Center is dedicated to the preservation of the story and historic legacy of magnetic disk storage with a focus on its early years.  Among our goals are:

The establishment of a Heritage Center at the original site, 99 Notre Dame, San Jose, CA where it all began in 1952.

The restoration of an original RAMAC disk drive to an operational state for public display.

Educational exhibits, including the underlying technology advances that have driven the dramatic increases in storage performance with decreases in cost, measured by the key figure of merit, magnetic bit storage density, a figure that has increased by a factor of 100 million over the last 50 years.