Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Magnetization
CDC 38500

Date:

c. 1976

Material:

Magnetic oxide on polyester base, plastic shell, metal spindle

Dimensions:

Cartridge 1 × 1¼ × 3½ in. (25 × 32 × 89 mm),  tape 2 13⁄16 × 150 in. (6.9 × 381 cm)

Company:

Control Data Corporation

Location:

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

A cartridge for the CDC 38500 Robotic Mass Storage System. The 38500 was designed for use with the IBM System/370 computer. Each cartridge held 8 MB in 16 tracks, which were written and read in alternate directions. The tape was 150 inches long, of which 100 inches was writable. Cartridges were stored in one or more magazines, each having slots for 2000 cartridges, giving a total capacity of 16 GB per magazine.

A robotic arm transferred the cartridges between the magazine and the drive. Finding and loading a new cartridge took an average of 2.5 seconds (Brooke 1975, pp. 7–9). The drive pulled the entire tape into two vacuum columns for reading and writing.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory installation, in use from 1978 to 1988, grew to eight systems. Systems were installed at approximately 75 other locations, mainly for business applications. Control Data stopped supporting the system in 1988 (Coleman).

References
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. 1978. The National Magnetic Fusion Energy Computer Center. Lawrence, California: Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
Brooke, Barbara H. 1975. Survey of Mass Storage Systems. Fort Belvoir, Virginia: U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Laboratories.
Coleman, Sam. n.d. "Early Archival Storage at LLNL." Stories of the Development of Large Scale Scientific Computing at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Accessed Mar. 25, 2024.
Kaisler, Stephen H. 2023. The Control Data Corporation's Early Systems. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

CDC 38500 Robotic Mass Storage System
The National Magnetic Fusion Energy Computer Center, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory