Wanted.. any info on 26" disk drive platter
Ralph Carpenter
An interesting reminder of my youth hangs on the wall of my
cubicle: a 26" platter from a CDC 6600 disk drive that was
decommissoned about 1973. I think the unit was a Bryan(t). As I
remember, the heads were hydraulically driven. The story was
that one job would periodically show up that put the mini-van
sized unit into resonance and, unless the operator rolled that
job out until some other jobs came along to randomize the head
movement, the whole unit would hop until it moved off the holes
in the raised floor.
Everyone that sees the huge platter asks me how much data it can
(could) hold. Does anyone out there know the specs of this
platter and the unit it came from? I would enjoy learning more
about it.
Thanks
Ralph Carpenter
PO Box 500, Mail Sta. 19-075
Tektronix, Inc.
Beaverton, OR
Phone (503) 627-4004
FAX (503) 627-5339
Steve Jay
>The unit had 4 quadrants. The quadrants were organized into a upper
>half and a lower half. Each half used equal and oppsite positioning
>to conteract arm movement.
I think this is confusing the 6603 with the slightly later 6638. The 6603
had just one positioner which moved all the heads in the same direction
at the same time. I seem to remember the term "quadrants" associated
with the 6638. The rest of the info on the 6603 matches my recollection.
The 6603's claim to fame was its very fast (by 1966 standards) transfer
rate: 1.4 Million 12 bit words a second (I think). It did this by
reading/writing 12 heads in parallel. Average access time: ~200
milliseconds, average latency: 32 milliseconds (900 RPM), so you had
to wait a while before you saw the high transfer rate.
To this day, every time I write a line of code which will cause a disk
access, I can hear the CLUNK, CLUNK of the 6603 as it moved the heads.
>My friend Don Crouse who installed a good many of these drives has quite
>a few stories about these drives.
Don would come to our site (University of Arizona), and work on his
Super-P diagnostic system while the local engineers took the disk apart.
Where is Don these days? I haven't seen him in about 20 years.
One of my favorite 6603 stories is the time the engineers left a hydraulic
hose loose while they went to lunch, and came back to find the entire
contents of the hydraulic system (5 or 10 gallons) dumped under our false
floor. The folks in the offices in the basement wondered about the
yellow stuff leaking onto their desks. We just missed emulsifying the
entire building when the expanding puddle of fluid stopped short of a
very large air conditioning duct.
Ah, they don't make 'em like they used to.
Steve Jay
s...@ultra.com ...ames!ultra!shj
Ultra Network Technologies / 101 Dagget Drive / San Jose, CA 95134 / USA
(408) 922-0100 x130 "Home of the 1 Gigabit/Second network"
Joe Cychosz
>
>An interesting reminder of my youth hangs on the wall of my
>cubicle: a 26" platter from a CDC 6600 disk drive that was
>decommissoned about 1973. I think the unit was a Bryan(t). As I
>remember, the heads were hydraulically driven. The story was
>that one job would periodically show up that put the mini-van
>sized unit into resonance and, unless the operator rolled that
>job out until some other jobs came along to randomize the head
>movement, the whole unit would hop until it moved off the holes
>in the raised floor.
>
You are right. It was from a Bryant disk, otherwise known as the
6603 disk. CDC did make a drive that had even larger platters
approximately 3'-4' in diameter. The University of Illinios use
to have one on there G20 system. I remember rolling the platter around
in the hallways of the EE building. They also made nice coffee tables.
One such table use to be at FermiLab.
Anyway, back to the Bryant:
Capacity: 56Mbyte
Weight: 4,300 lbs
Surfaces: 32 (4*9 - 4)
The unit had 4 quadrants. The quadrants were organized into a upper
half and a lower half. Each half used equal and oppsite positioning
to conteract arm movement.
The first unit was delivered to Livermore.
My friend Don Crouse who installed a good many of these drives has quite
a few stories about these drives. The most notable are:
1. One drive that was on its way to France fell out of the loading
bay of a 707 to the ground. Upon arivial in France, the drive
worked even though it was shaped more like a parrallelogram instead
of a box. The heads were wrapped and locked in there retracted
positions and survived the drop.
2. While installing a 6600 system in Mexico, one of the Bryants fell
through the floor.
The Bryant was the last of the big disk technology. Shortly after it
14" technology arived on the scene, which lasted up until a few years
ago (yes I know there are some 14" drives still in production, but
the majority are much smaller now).
If you get some of that magnetic partical material that they use to
evaluate magnetic tape media and spray it on a portion of your disk
you should be able to read the bits.
Joe
Bytes/lb is left as an exercise of the reader.
Rich Ragan
6603 and 6603-Mod-1 Disk Files
Equipment type: DA
Sectors/track: 64 in outer zone
50 in inner zone
Tracks/device: 2048
Words/device : 7,471,104 (60 bit words)
Max Data rate: 61.1K wds/sec outer zone
48.5K wds/sec inner zone
Transfer rate: 1.4 usec/word (12 bits) outer
: 1.8 usec/word (12 bits) inner
I don't have a 6603 platter but my recollection
is that they were more like 1 meter in diameter
and the 6638 platter could have been around 26".
I have some 6638 platters at home so I might
remember to check their size.
There is a story (possibly apocryphal) that at some
site the heads crashed on a 6603 and the motors kept
turning. The friction is supposed to have ignited
a fire on the disk platters which (story has it)
contained aluminum and magnesium. Supposedly the
result was a computer room equivalent of a meltdown.
--
Richard R. Ragan (408) 496-4340
Control Data Corp., Silicon Valley Operations
Jitze Couperus
I thought I heard 'em referred to as 1 metre disks...
I first saw that particular peripheral attached to an RCA301 computer
(early solid state - contemporaneous with IBM 1401) and this was in turn
derived from a specialised military application referred to as "mobidic"
which consisted of aforementioned RCA301 with a Bryant Excello mounted
in back of a 5 ton truck - the name mobidic derives from "mobile disk drive".
RCA got the contract and made a civilian version with a Cobol compiler
which is where I came in...
--
Jitze Couperus Control Data - Silicon Valley Operations
ji...@u02.svl.cdc.com Voice (408) 496-4334 FAX (408) 496-4106
ste...@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu
happened, though. By the time I got there a year or so later, it had
been replaced with a 6638. (Every time I smell alcohol in the air, I
think of the hours and hours spent by C.E.'s buffing those platters!)
As most of you (some of you? ANY of you?) will remember, the 6603
platters were mounted with the axis of rotation horizontal, in a
narrow cabinet with doors on the front and back. Well, to the
carefully observant, there was ONE difference between the front and
back doors: one had a metal pocket built into it for the manuals!
As the story has it, an (unnamed) C.E., had just finished with a repair
of the 6603, and was replacing the doors (with it running, of course),
and got them transposed. When the door with the manual pocket was
closed (on the wrong end), the edges of the platters made contact with
it, causing a rather obvious failure of the unit (screeching, smoke,
etc.!). A rather long period of down-time supposedly followed... :-)
And yes, Steve, you're right. They MOST CERTAINLY don't make 'em like
they used to!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Gregory (Greg) E. Steele (Internet):ge...@osu.edu
Network Engineer
The Ohio State University (BITNET): STEELE@OHSTPY
Instruction & Research Computer Center
1971 Neil Avenue - Rm 406 Voice: 614-292-4843
Columbus, OHio 43210-1210 FAX: 614-292-7081
Joe Cychosz
>In <1990Sep11.0...@ecn.purdue.edu> 3ks...@cadlab.ecn.purdue.edu (Joe Cychosz) writes:
>
>>The unit had 4 quadrants. The quadrants were organized into a upper
>>half and a lower half. Each half used equal and oppsite positioning
>>to conteract arm movement.
>
>I think this is confusing the 6603 with the slightly later 6638. The 6603
>had just one positioner which moved all the heads in the same direction
>at the same time. I seem to remember the term "quadrants" associated
>with the 6638. The rest of the info on the 6603 matches my recollection.
Yep! A few more update facts and corrections. As time goes by, the
numbers are all just a blur.
6603, had 39"x1/2" magnisium platters. In each half there were 7 platters
(1 clock and 6 data/12 sides) rotating vertically.
A later drive, the 808 had 72 26" alluminum platters. We had some of these
at Illinois also and I have a platter out of this. This drive like the
later 6638 was devided into quadrants. I believe there were about 10
of these drives made.
6638, don't know what size platters, was 800 Mbit drive and had 4x18
platters. The disks spun at 1200 rpm and unlike the 808 used equal
and oppisite positioning as noted above.
Rich Ragan
Therefore, the original poster must have a platter from a 6638 (808)
or the related 821 (serial).
I heard a 6603 story (possibly apocryphal) that at some site
the heads crashed and the motors kept on turning. Supposedly
the magnesium platters soon ignited and the equivalent of
"meltdown" occurred in the computer room.
6603 Tech specs from my Kronos 2.0 instant:
Equipment Type: DA
Sectors/track : 64 outer zone
: 50 inner zone
Tracks/device: 2048
Words/device : 7,471,104 (60 bit words)
Max data rate: 61.1K wds/sec. outer
48.5K wds/sec inner
Robert Scott
>
> Stuff deleted...
>
> I heard a 6603 story (possibly apocryphal) that at some site
> the heads crashed and the motors kept on turning. Supposedly
> the magnesium platters soon ignited and the equivalent of
> "meltdown" occurred in the computer room.
>
I have another meltdown story to relate regarding CDC equipment. A friend
of mine was doing performance testing on our then in-house Cyber 205,
serial #501 (the first production machine). At this time, the machine
had been installed in the Arden Hills computer room for several years, and
was frequently used as a testbed for new hardware updates, such as new memory
configurations.
It seems that the in-house engineers had developed a non-standard method of
removing memory boards in a new type of memory unit, and over time the
connectors became slightly loose. My friend began to run a very memory
intensive test that read/wrote patterns through various banks of memory as
fast as possible. After this program had been running for some time, someone
in the computer room smelled smoke, and discovered that there was smoke
coming forth from the vents at the top of the 205 memory bay. An emergency
powerdown was accomplished and everything "put out". It was later surmised
that the increased current flow to/from the memories during the performance
test had heated the chips, then the boards, and then the connectors to the
point where some of the loose connectors began to melt.
Now that's a hot computer!
Zeke
(Apologies to Bernie if I got the details a little wrong, but I stand by
the scenario)
--
~~~~~~~~~~~ From the Shrine of the "Last Gasp of ETA Systems" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Extra zesty disclaimer: MINE! MINE! ALL MINE! <chortle snort froth drool>
Robert K. "Zeke" Scott internet: ze...@eta.cdc.com
Control Data Corp, Supercomputer Support Group
Richard Friedman
>One of my favorite 6603 stories is the time the engineers left a hydraulic
UH OH HERE COMES THE NOSTALGIA AGAIN!
I DONT THINK I'M READY FOR ANOTHER WAVE.
CDC's been dead a long time now... dont you think its time to bury
the corpse??
--
/\=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=/\
\/Richard Friedman (415)540-5216 | rc...@well.sf.ca.us \/
/\Pacific-Sierra Rsrch (Berkeley) | or well!rc...@apple.com /\
\/=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=\/
Robert Scott
>
> UH OH HERE COMES THE NOSTALGIA AGAIN!
> I DONT THINK I'M READY FOR ANOTHER WAVE.
>
> CDC's been dead a long time now... dont you think its time to bury
> the corpse??
>
> --
> /\=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=/\
> \/Richard Friedman (415)540-5216 | rc...@well.sf.ca.us \/
> /\Pacific-Sierra Rsrch (Berkeley) | or well!rc...@apple.com /\
> \/=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=\/
I dunno. Seems that somebody somewhere here keeps sending me
a paycheck every once in awhile. Don't know if it will last, but
it does pay the mortgage for the time being.
Zeke
Opinions expressed herein are mine only, and expressly aren't
the expression designed to impress by my employer, who probably
isn't impressed by expression anyway. Expressly impressively
depressing, ain't it?
Joe Cychosz
>I heard a 6603 story (possibly apocryphal) that at some site
>the heads crashed and the motors kept on turning. Supposedly
>the magnesium platters soon ignited and the equivalent of
>"meltdown" occurred in the computer room.
Livermore threatend to ignite there disk after it was decomissioned. I
don't know if they ever did.
Joe
Bernie King-Smith
>
>I have another meltdown story to relate regarding CDC equipment. A friend
>of mine was doing performance testing on our then in-house Cyber 205,
>serial #501 (the first production machine). At this time, the machine
>had been installed in the Arden Hills computer room for several years, and
>was frequently used as a testbed for new hardware updates, such as new memory
>configurations.
>
>It seems that the in-house engineers had developed a non-standard method of
>removing memory boards in a new type of memory unit, and over time the
>connectors became slightly loose. My friend began to run a very memory
>intensive test that read/wrote patterns through various banks of memory as
>fast as possible. After this program had been running for some time, someone
>in the computer room smelled smoke, and discovered that there was smoke
>coming forth from the vents at the top of the 205 memory bay. An emergency
>powerdown was accomplished and everything "put out". It was later surmised
>that the increased current flow to/from the memories during the performance
>test had heated the chips, then the boards, and then the connectors to the
>point where some of the loose connectors began to melt.
>
>Now that's a hot computer!
>
>
>Zeke
>
Yes, these details are pretty much correct. The program that was executing
heated up the memory boards the farthest from the heat sensors on the machine.
The rest of the memory frame apparently cooled the total frame so that the
heat sensor never went off. When the board finally overheated, the resin in
the board set the whole memory frame on fire. In addition, when the machine
caught on fire, the smoke poured from the machine and went right past
the smoke detectors. THEY NEVER WENT OFF !!!!
However, two years later a fellow countryman of mine from down under
continued the tradition on a air cooled ETA10. On this machine, also
a prototype, the CPU board (There is only one board per CPU in a ETA10)
was wirewrapped. There were several routing corrections made on the
surface of the 44 layer board. One night both of us were each running on
one of the two CPU's in the machine when he burned a hole the size
of an American quarter through the CPU board.
To my knowledge these were two of the three fires caused in the
CYBER205/ETA10 machines. The other one was a production CYBER 250
at ETA Systems, Inc.
They were really "HOT" machines from a performance and experience
point of view.
Bernie King-Smith
(The WOMBAT)
Former System Performance Analyst ETA Systems, Inc.
Disclaimer: This posting is only from my experience and does not
reflect on the opinions of my current employer.
P.S. Sorry Peter if the details are not completely correct !!!!