FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTER

COMPUTER HARDWARE COMPONENTS FUNCTIONS

WHAT IS A HARD DRIVE

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
How many characters does RAMAC 305 stored in 1956?
A
4 million
B
5 million
C
6 million
D
5.5 million
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -The 305 was one of the last vacuum tube computers that IBM built. It weighed over a ton. The IBM 350 disk system stored 5 million alphanumeric characters recorded as six data bits, one parity bit and one space bit for eight bits recorded per character. It had fifty 24-inch-diameter (610 mm) disks.

Detailed explanation-2: -Personal computers The first disk drives known as “RAMAC” were about 10 megabits-just over 1 MB-of capacity and weighed 10 tons.

Detailed explanation-3: -Over a thousand IBM 305 RAMAC systems were built, which were leased for $3, 200 per month, equivalent to a purchase price of about $160, 000 in 1957 dollars (approximately $1.3m today). The 305 was one of the last vacuum tube computers that IBM built, with production ending in 1961.

Detailed explanation-4: -Assembled with covers, the 350 was 60 inches long, 68 inches high and 29 inches deep. It was configured with 50 magnetic disks containing 50, 000 sectors, each of which held 100 alphanumeric characters, for a capacity of 5 million characters.

Detailed explanation-5: -Short for random-access method of accounting and control, the IBM 305 RAMAC is an early computer that used the IBM 350 moving head hard drive, similar to the ones we still use today. The picture shows two IBM 305 computers at U.S. Army Red River Foreground.

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