Computer History: Memory & Storage 1950-1985 - (Core, disc, vacuum tube, etc.)

Computer History: Memory and Storage: 1950-1985: A very enjoyable talk about the early evolution of computer memory and storage with lots of examples. Well paced, good explanations. (Excerpt from British TV series “Micro Live” one of several very professional British TV programs from the 1980’s that focused on educating the public about computers.)
This very brief minute clip also mentions the LEO 1 computer by Lyons Company and the ICT 1300 computer of 1962. Provided for historical review and comment only.
(Micro Live was produced by David Allen as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project, and followed on from earlier series such as The Computer Programme, Computers In Control, and Making the Most of the Micro.)
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[@shinoobie1549]

This video on the history of computing is now itself part of the history of computing

[@patturk7408]

I babysat a disc setup similar to the one at 5:04 while going for a CS degree in the early 1980s.

[@lidarman2]

Just think, you can watch this video on a watch these days.

[@sweekangteo2445]

Also on an eye wear

[@eleeco8627]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[@scubaspi]

Watching this on a 65" TV and internet connected video player (Chromecast) that I can carry by myself while trying to imagine the absurdity of it all being explained to any single person in that video. Also imagining how they would respond to being told that in the year 2020, just about any person under 55 in even a modestly developed country would be lying if they said they'd never used a computer more powerful than even their mightiest mainframe while sitting on the can.

[@theonecommenter]

think about this 4KB in a floppy disk was crazy back then but now they can make 4TB hard drives easily

[@lwilton]

Floppies were a little larger than that. The first 8 inch floppy disks stored something like 180 KB per side if I recall correctly. The first ones were single-sided. Pretty soon they realized they could use both sides of the disk and double the capacity. The final form of the floppy, the 3.5 inch disk, could store 1.4 MB, which was really a pretty impressive amount of data for the time. The first mainframe computer I worked on could only store 1 MB, on a disk 2 feet in diameter.

[@Argoon1981]

I'm sad not existing when this analog way of running computing was happening, I find analog stuff so cool but was still fortunate enough to have born in the 80's, at the time where the personal computer evolution was still going strong, still exciting, today imo not so much.

[@Citrusautomaton]

Analog is making a comeback my friend.

[@josephgaviota]

Very Nice Vid. I enjoy seeing how we got to where we are today. Thank you for posting this.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Josephgaviota, thank you for your kind words. Glad you enjoyed it. ~ Victor, at CHAP

[@James_Knott]

Back in the 70's & 80's I was a computer technician, working on a variety of systems. I worked on DEC, Data General, Collins and Pr1me gear, including tape & disk drives, core memory, punch card systems and more. I even worked on one system that used vacuum tubes & relays and had a drum. I still have a core memory plane from a Collins computer.

[@James_Knott]

Forgot to mention, I also worked on some video terminals that used acoustic delay lines. They were built with a coil of wire.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi James, sounds very cool. "Collins" is not a brand I am familiar with. You worked on some very early machines! ~ Victor, at CHAP

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

... Acoustic delay lines are a technology most folks today are not aware of. Did you have a favorite computer manufacturer? ~ Victor, CHAP

[@James_Knott]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Collins started out as Collins Radio and then became Rockwell Collins. They made a lot of aviation equipment too. Look up Rockwell Collins for more info. Other than the one with Vacuum tubes, which was older than I was, the stuff I worked on was 70's & 80's tech, though some a bit earlier.

[@James_Knott]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject I spent most of my time on Data General. There were several techs where I worked and we tended to focus on certain makes, though were trained on most of them.

[@LeviDSmith]

5:14 Kids today: What's a telephone book?

[@Bianchi77]

Nice video, thanks for sharing it, well done :)

[@346Moody]

I remember watching this and others on the BBC. Incidentally I worked for Digital Equipment Corporation during the 80's and 90's. You don't seem to have any videos covering the development and contribution made by this initiative company and their PDPs or VAX computing.....

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi 346Moody, thanks for your comment! Our video material is often limited by what we can find, or reconstruct from vintage records. Many once large computer manufacturers do not have active archive units or easily accessible records (RCA, Honeywell, General Electric, etc.) without the payment of research fees or usage fees. We'd love to have more DEC material and are open to any suggestions for resources if you know of any. We are always looking for good material, however, and it will continue to be on our radar. Thanks! ~ Victor.

[@346Moody]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Hi Victor, thank you for your reply. I do understand and to add, the material you have collected is amazing! Keep up the great work. If I stumble across anything of interest and of suitable quality, I'll submit it for your consideration. Best regards, Mike

[@Mutlap]

I remember seeing those platers in the computer room. In 1980, There was a memory device called core storage. Two wires went through the center, and the wires crossed making an X shape. The box was about a 4X4X4 box.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

HI Mutlap, yes, that sounds like a core storage array. Those 4x4x4 boxes of core are quite collectible now too. Have seen several on eBay, some for several hundred $$.

[@victorpinasarnault9135]

I watched a live with Bob Martin yesterday and he talked about the delay coils used in the early days of computing (1946).

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Victor Pinas, is there a link to that talk? Sounds interesting. ~ Victor k, at CHAP

[@victorpinasarnault9135]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Yes, that one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aarOeJylbKeieM0

[@Ni5ei]

5:07 My friend's dad used to work at the computer center of an insurance company and would bring these discs (faulty ones) home for us to play with. They were huge and quite heavy. Never knew they were only 10MB 😂

[@jrgboy]

The first computers I worked on were an English Electric KDF9 and an Elliot 806 circa 1968

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Thank you. Some early names we do not hear much about their history in the U.S. ~ Victor, CHAP

[@jrgboy]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Thanks I later worked as an engineer on Honeywell, IBM & NAS

[@captainkeyboard1007]

Data storage is my main feature of the computer. Since I had exposure to the IBM PC in 1988, I wanted a computer that has an internal disk, until 2002 when I bought my first one, running Microsoft Windows. I agree that this video show about the history of computing is now itself part of the history of computing. Computer technology is the only history I ever watch.

[@suryaa1929]

Waiting for 1985 to 2023

[@michaelangeloabarreto4588]

Lol love how back in the day the analog to how much data it could store was always in how many books can it save.

[@johnneal5616]

as the song says "I remember it well"

[@frankowalker4662]

Exelent. Any chance of the full documentary?

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Franco, the full show and numerous others they did are on Archive.org. Search under films, video, "Micro Live". Lots of fun material there. This one is December 1985. (If you can't find it, let me know.) ~ Victor, at CHAP

[@frankowalker4662]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Thank you, I'll look for them.

[@DataWaveTaGo]

At 2:52 - Core Memory - I did circuit design for mini-computers in 1972 to 1978 which used core memory. Fast core memory had a cycle time of about one microsecond (1000 nanoseconds). I began designing Z80 based systems in 1979. The memory cycle for a 4 MHz chip was 0.75 microseconds. Soon enough the Z80 was available in 6, 8 & 10 MHz parts.

[@typograf62]

No Williams tubes?

[@jamesslick4790]

I watched on a $200 phone with 128Gb internal storage AND a 128Gb SD card!

[@thesteelrodent1796]

Find it peculiar that he talks about 16 bit in connection with the vac tubes (valves). Although at the time this was made, most common computers were 16 bit, I can't recall any vac tube computers that were. Quite often they were 6 bit with an extra check bit to match the number of holes punched into paper tape. The machines were already insanely big, they would've needed multiple buildings to house them if they were 16 bit

[@8BitNaptime]

No one talked about 16 bits? All he said was it takes 16 valves to store 8 bits because it takes two active elements to make a flip-flop.

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

He didn't. He said 16 are needed to store 8 bits. Pay better attention!

[@josefbuckland]

Classic

[@mel816]

And today you can get a whole terabyte of storage on a micro SD card the size of a thumbnail 😮

[@toyguy1956]

Today we are talking 1 or 2 TB I bet in 5 years computers or phones will have 1 or 2 PETA bytes

[@victorpinasarnault9135]

Like 98º

[@josephlauren7001]

Wow..study of humans..or ghosts??

[@jessihawkins9116]

these people are so stoopid. it’s like they went out of their way to find the hardest, expensive and most unreliable way to store stuff when they could’ve just used flash memory 😆

[@jessihawkins9116]

that’s like the crappiest CD-ROM drive I’ve ever seen. it can’t even record 🤭