[kwlug-disc] Nuclear 8" floppy disks [ was Re: Hard disk smartctl errors]

[CrankyOldBugger]

I used to work on an IBM System/38 which actually used a magazine (case) of
8" floppies.  You put 8-10 floppies in the magazine, then pop the whole
thing into the drive.  More disk space than you'll ever need!



On 29 April 2014 23:56, Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 29, 2014 at 11:13 PM, unsolicited <unsolicited at swiz.ca> wrote:
>
>> P.S. If you saw 60 minutes last Sunday, you would have seen that the U.S.
>> nuke silo's still use 8" floppies. They studied the security aspects of
>> their systems, and such systems are considered more secure than more modern
>> storage media/methods.
>>
>> - but they can't find parts to be able to close/lock the vault doors. Go
>> figure. (Early 60's era.)
>
>
> Did not see the show, but read about it afterwards.
>
> The first mainframe I ever worked on (mid 1980s), read its firmware from
> 8" disk after it was powered up. And after it read one side, it would
> instruct the operator to flip the floppy to the other side then continue to
> read the firmware.
>
> That model of the mainframe was the first of its family in the Middle East
> to not require a card reader!
> --
> Khalid M. Baheyeldin
> 2bits.com, Inc.
> Fast Reliable Drupal
> Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
> Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
> Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
> For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and
> wrong." -- H.L. Mencken
>
> _______________________________________________
> kwlug-disc mailing list
> kwlug-disc at kwlug.org
> http://kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://kwlug.org/pipermail/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org/attachments/20140430/b3de8d1c/attachment.htm>