data stored in moving rust, was Re: Remembering RAMAC

[Tom Jennings]

On Sat, 28 May 2005, Ulf Andersson wrote:

> The earliest reference I have found to a working drum memory is the
> April 1949 version of the University of Manchester (UK) Mark I. This
> is said on page 114 in the little book "Early British Computers" by
> Simon Lavington. Anyway, that is 56 years ago.

The problem with histories is that they oversimplify. In this
instance it's not too bad; RAMAC is a disk drive by modern
definitions, so there's a reasonably bright line between it and
similar things.

But things like Booth's paper memory defies modern categorization;
though rotating, magnetic, disk-like, it was a main-memory for a
non-stored-program calculator. Since in 1947 there were no
computers-as-we-know-them-today -- meaning an electronic machine
with an "operating system" and a a data abstraction known as a
"file" -- this disk/not-a-disk doesn't fit into "timelines" and
Famous Person/Famous Product histories, so they get dropped.

This problem exists in other areas of history and historiography,
but in most areas of human culture -- clothing, food, language,
housing, warfare, artwork, etc -- massive paradigm shifts don't
occur every 15 minutes.