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StorageTek
preserves legacy with Computer History Museum
StorageTek preserves legacy with Computer History
Museum
StorageTek has cemented its legacy in the history of the
computing industry with two donations to the Computer History Museum
in Mountain View, California. The StorageTek 3630 tape drive, circa
1973, (below, left) and the 8650 disk drive, circa 1978, (below,
right) will be on display in a special computer storage exhibit at
the museum, according to museum curator Allison Akbay.
The Computer History Museum was established in California in
1996. It is the world's largest and most significant history museum
for preserving and presenting the computing revolution and its
impact on the human experience. It allows visitors to discover how
computing became the amplifier for our minds and changed the way we
work, live and play.
People and companies worldwide have collaborated with the
Computer History Museum to assemble one of the world's largest and
most comprehensive collections of over 4,000 artifacts, 10,000
images, 4,000 linear feet of cataloged documentation and several
gigabytes of software. Among the items in the collection are a
Hollerith census machine, a Cray-3 supercomputer, a WWII Enigma, a
see-through PalmPilot, parts of MIT's Whirlwind computer and a
computer-generated Mona Lisa. The Museum's emphasis on preservation
and education make it a unique resource for media researchers,
historians, scientists, industry professionals and students of all
ages. The entry of the double-density 8650 disk drive into the
museum draws both happy and sad memories from employees. Jeff
Halliday, who celebrated his 32nd anniversary at StorageTek on
August 14, says, “It was a different, exploding market, so it really
was an exciting time to be in the company.” The development of the
8650 was so critical that it marked the first time a “clean room”
was built, which required employees to wear booties and hairnets.
Halliday says that at the product’s peak, the company produced 66
units a day. The 8650 became a hit after IBM delayed a similar
product. “It was successful because the market was there.”
The 8650 was revolutionary because with two 11-inch disk platters
containing 43 megabytes of memory the 8650 had twice the storage
capacity of the comparable IBM product. Each fragile platter was
held in a 16-inch box, which combined was called the HDA, or head
disk assembly, and weighed about 70 pounds. Wes Nelson, a field
engineer at the time, says, “I could fit two HDAs into the back of
my 1974 Chevy Vega station wagon.” Today, you would need about 93
HDAs to equal the same memory as a four-gigabyte iPod Mini.
Unfortunately, StorageTek’s eagerness to enter the market may
have had long-term consequences, as the HDAs were prone to failure.
“Field failures brought us to our knees and led to our Chapter 11
bankruptcy,” says Halliday. Nelson has similar memories. “I made a
lot of money in overtime fixing the 8650, but it was instrumental in
helping get us into bankruptcy,” he says.
StorageTek spent millions attempting to figure out why the HDAs
would break down so frequently. “We had so many field returns from
the 8650,” Halliday says, “that our building in Longmont’s second
floor was damaged because it bowed from the weight.” As StorageTek
fell into bankruptcy, heavy layoffs ensued. Some employees came back
as temporary workers specifically to work on the 8650. “One guy’s
job was to smash the returned HDAs with a sledgehammer so no one
could get the data,” Halliday says.
Solving the HDA mystery came too late, and by accident, Nelson
says. “It was a cooling problem. Legend has it that we sent some to
Australia in a plexiglass case, and the case broke so the air flowed
through them great and they never broke.” From the 8650 experience,
StorageTek learned many lessons about disk architecture and product
development. “The lesson that should have been learned was, don’t
release a product before you’re ready. We did a lot of de-bugging in
the field.”
The StorageTek 3630 was part of the 3600 tape drive series, a
successful product line that continued into the 1980s. It was one of
the first reel-to-reel tape drives and required hand-loading tape
reels onto the drive. The drive stood approximately six feet tall
and weighed several hundred pounds. The 3630 operated at 75 inches
per second, a slower speed than other models at the time, but which
also offered a more cost-effective solution for customers with
simpler storage needs. Models of the 3600 tape drive series featured
improvements over their predecessors, with redesigns of the capstan
control system, tape path, tape cleaner, and head contour, all of
which provided more control and less wear on the tape.
Neither Halliday nor Nelson remember much about the 3630 tape
drive that is also entering the museum, but that may be because it
worked so well. “It was a good, reliable box," Nelson says. "When
you put a good product in the field, the customers will come.”
To learn more about the Computer History Museum, visit the
museum’s Web site at http://www.computerhistory.org/.
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