Origin of "Winchester" disk name?
Albert S Woodhull
tried asking in other areas with little success.
I would like to learn more about the origin of the name "Winchester"
to refer to small hard disks. In one of the Norton MS-DOS books it is
mentioned that "Winchester" was IBM's internal code name for the
project when they were developing the first hard disks. I recall from
articles in BYTE and similar sources in the 1970's that the name was
chosen for its association with a famous firearm, the Winchester
30-30, and that those numbers had something to do with the disk's
parameters -- I am tempted to say the disks had 30M capacity and a
diameter of 30 cm. That seems about right for the minicomputer hard
disks systems I first worked with in the 1960s.
I remember this well enough that I would be willing to tell it as a
story in a classroom, but my students all know I make things up when
it suits me. I don't feel sure enough of myself to say this in
print. Can anyone help me out with this?
I don't know anything about guns, either? Can anyone tell me exactly
what a Winchester 30-30 is and what the numbers mean in that context?
Albert S. Woodhull, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
awoo...@hamp.hampshire.edu
wood...@shaysnet.com
413-549-2962
Kelvin Lunsford
Albert S Woodhull <as...@hamp.hampshire.edu> wrote:
>
>I would like to learn more about the origin of the name "Winchester"
>to refer to small hard disks.
to the head slider technology, i.e. taper-flat with outer air-bearing
rails for counter-balance.
>I remember this well enough that I would be willing to tell it as a
>story in a classroom, but my students all know I make things up when
>it suits me.
I hate it when teachers do that. Please stop doing it.
>I don't know anything about guns, either? Can anyone tell me exactly
>what a Winchester 30-30 is and what the numbers mean in that context?
Lever action rifle, 30 caliber, holds about 5 rounds, uses 30-30 ammo.
Not the most powerful gun but it will do the job and won't knock your
arm off when you shoot it.
Kelvin Lunsford, kel...@qantel.com
Hale Landis
>I would like to learn more about the origin of the name "Winchester"
>mentioned that "Winchester" was IBM's internal code name for the
>project when they were developing the first hard disks.
This is sort of correct. Winchester was just one of many code
names used for internal projects. Some code names were names of
moutains, trees, guns, etc. Winchester just happened to be the
name used for project that developed the 3330 family of mainframe
disk drives used in the early System/370 days (around 1969-1970).
This family of drives used new head and media technology that
allowed the heads to land on the media when the disk stops
spinning. This technology, with many improvements, is still used
today.
BTW: The original 3330 disk drive could store 100MB on about ten
14-inch platters (this was a big deal in 1969!). An typical 3330
disk subsystem with 8 drives required about 4ft x 12ft of floor
space and was a box about 5ft high.
>I recall from
>articles in BYTE and similar sources in the 1970's that the name was
>chosen for its association with a famous firearm, the Winchester
>30-30, and that those numbers had something to do with the disk's
>parameters -- I am tempted to say the disks had 30M capacity and a
>diameter of 30 cm. That seems about right for the minicomputer hard
>disks systems I first worked with in the 1960s.
It was just a project code name -- nothing more.
--
\\===============\\=======================\\
\\ Hale Landis \\ 303-548-0567 \\
// Niwot, CO USA // lan...@sugs.tware.com //
//===============//=======================//
Mark Boyd
>to refer to small hard disks.
>
From my, rather fallible, memory the name refers to the 'flying head'
technology introduced by IBM back in the 70's. The drive that used it was
an 030 (or something like that) and got nicknamed Winchester after the
rifle. The nickname stuck not just the drive but to the flying head
design which is used by all (?) modern hard drives.
Mark
Liz Gardner
>
>In article <137cc$d222...@news.hampshire.edu>, Albert S >Woodhull
>
>>
<snip>
>as...@hamp.hampshire.edu> wrote:
>From my, rather fallible, memory the name refers to the >'flying head'
technology introduced by IBM back in the
>70's. The drive that used it was an 030 (or something
>like that) and got nicknamed Winchester after the
>rifle. The nickname stuck not just the drive but to the >flying head
design which is used by all (?) modern hard >drives.
>
IBM in San Jose California uses code names to describe products under
development.
"Winchester" one of the code names (probably the last name) assigned to a
disk drive (DASD in IBM's terms) that was announced as the model 3340.
It was a removable module drive (the module was called a Data Module and
had the 3348 product number). [so much for the rumour that Winchesters
are not removable]
A key head/disk attribute was contact start/stop recording, that is, the
heads land on the disk when the spindle is stopped and take off when the
spindle is started. Previous IBM products had flying heads, but they
were withdrawn from a disk pack (or cartridge) upon shut down and
launched after the spindle was up to speed. BTW the previous heads were
developed under projects named MERLIN and then ICEBERG. Among the
technical details were lubricated media and a slider containing a "taper-
flat" air bearing. It is this "taper-flat" slider that has become
synonomous with "Winchester," to the point that advanced products are
known as mini, micro, nano, etc. [Winchester's].
IBM was not the first to demonstrate contact start/stop recording but
they certainly were the first to make it commercially successful and have
their design adopted by the entire HDD industry. IBM did invent the
flying head, but it occurred in the mid 50's with the RAMAC (if you allow
for a pressurized head) or in the late 50's with the 1311 {self
pressurizing}).
There are two purported origins of the code name. One is that the
original product called for a fixed removable design of about 30 MB fixed
and 30MB removable, i.e., 30/30 which coincidentally was the nick name of
the Winchester rifle. I think that stood for 30 caliper and 30 rounds,
but that is just my guess. The alternative is that it was named after a
San Jose landmark, the Winchester Mystery House, either because it was so
advanced that a would be a mystery to the competition or because, like
the mystery house it would never get finished (while its benefactor
lived). I personally like the latter origin. If you really want the
info you might try to get to Ken Haughton who was the Winchester project
manager and the last I heard was dean of engineering at Santa Clara
University in Santa Clara California.
I never worked at IBM, but have followed their disk drive development
closely for many years.
Tom Gardner (using my daughter prodigy account)
tom.g...@syquest.com
Zax
>"Winchester" one of the code names (probably the last name) assigned to a
>disk drive (DASD in IBM's terms) that was announced as the model 3340.
>There are two purported origins of the code name. One is that the
>original product called for a fixed removable design of about 30 MB fixed
>and 30MB removable, i.e., 30/30 which coincidentally was the nick name of
>the Winchester rifle.
> The alternative is that it was named after a
>San Jose landmark, the Winchester Mystery House, either because it was so
>advanced that a would be a mystery to the competition or because, like
>the mystery house it would never get finished (while its benefactor
>lived).
Well the story I heard was that Winchester disks were invented at IBMs
Hursley Plant, which is in the Winchester area of Hampshire, England
I have believed this until now, because I know that IBM have done a
lot of disk development work at their sites in Hampshire.
**********************************
* *
* Zax last of the Zaxanoids *
* *
**********************************
Al Rechany
>In article <137cc$d222...@news.hampshire.edu>, Albert S Woodhull
><as...@hamp.hampshire.edu> wrote:
>>
>>I would like to learn more about the origin of the name "Winchester"
>>to refer to small hard disks.
>>
>
>From my, rather fallible, memory the name refers to the 'flying head'
>technology introduced by IBM back in the 70's. The drive that used it was
>an 030 (or something like that) and got nicknamed Winchester after the
>rifle. The nickname stuck not just the drive but to the flying head
>design which is used by all (?) modern hard drives.
>
>
> Mark
FWIW - From McGraw-Hill's Datapro Research:
"Hard disk technology is by no means new. Winchester hard disks have
been used in data processing environments since the early 1970's. In
fact, it was during an *ANTITRUST* (emphasis added) hearing in 1973
that a witness inadvertently gave the hard disks its Winchester
moniker. He had worked on the original IBM project that led to the
first commercial hard disk drive and stated that the first IBM drive
developed came in a *30+30* megabyte configuration. This reminded
writers of the famous Winchester 30.30 rifle and led to the Winchester
nickname being applied to the entire genre of hard disks."
The article is dated 1986 and offers no more in regards to the
antitrust (AT) hearing. However, the way it's written it leads you to
believe that IBM was, at least partially, the cause for the hearing.
Interesting, in the light of the recent Microsoft AT Hearing of last
year.... :-)
If anyone can "shed some more light in this matter it is certainly
appreciated.
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No guarantees. No refunds.
Mail to: ARec...@ix.netcom.com <<OR>> A...@sddpc.sannet.gov
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Fog N. Tanner, Jr.
3380, and 3390 disk development has been in the U.S., assuming California
is stall part of the U.S. I know that Hursley's claim to fame is C.I.C.S
(cash In on Customer Stupidity) development (started here but moved to
England). And the IBM System/360 model 40 was made somewhere in England.
The O.S. systems development groups also had a number of names for
various disk families. Merlin and Zues are ones that most systems
programmers have worked with (if you did any internals). These wern't
published, you found them by looking through thounsands of lines of code
- PCP was about 30,000 MVS/ESA is over 200,000,000. The sad thing is some
genius (brown nose) at IBM decided to clean up the comments several years
ago and its gotten a little dry and boring - at least the last 8 years.
Regards,
Fog
Liz Gardner
>
>In article <137cc$d222...@news.hampshire.edu> as...@hamp.hampshire.edu
writes:
>This is sort of correct. Winchester was just one of many >code names
used for internal projects. Some code names
>were names of moutains, trees, guns, etc. Winchester
>just happened to be the name used for project that
>developed the 3330 family of mainframe disk drives
>used in the early System/370 days (around 1969-1970).
>This family of drives used new head and media technology that
>allowed the heads to land on the media when the disk stops
>spinning. This technology, with many improvements,
>is still used today.
This is true of Winchester, the 3340, not the 3330.
>BTW: The original 3330 disk drive could store 100MB
>on about ten 14-inch platters (this was a big deal in 1969!).
True, it used 19 surfaces for data & 1 for servo.
tom gardner (using my daughters prodigy id)
Fog N. Tanner, Jr.
I beleive the 'witness' is mistaken about the fisrt IBM disk drive. A
thirty meg drive was a dream at that time. The first commerical drive had
less capacity than a diskette. That was tha RAMAC, which dates back to
the 50's. T.J. Watson, Sr.(Mr. IBM) did not beleive that disk drives
would ever work so the funding was not there. He also though computers
were a fad at one time. The first drive was completed with funding from
the development team. I don't remember the capacity of the 1311, but the
2311 only held 7 meagabytes. Its succssor, the 2314 held a whopping 24
meg. The 3330's finally got above the 50 meg size but they came out in
the early 70's about 15 years after the first IBM disk drives.
Regards,
Fog