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When mid-20th century prognosticators tried to imagine what life would be like in the 21st century, they often envisioned a world in which computers were large, powerful, andfew — massive machines that controlled all sorts of functions from centralized locations. Instead, what we have today are large numbers of (increasingly) smaller and cheaper computers distributed along networks, many of them dedicated to handling specialized tasks. It's not surprising, then, that those who came of age in the era of the personal computer might view a picture of a cabinet-sized (5' x 6') 4.4 MB disk drive as something taken from a 1950s science fiction film or the product of digital manipulation, as depicted in this photograph: In 1956, IBM introduced the 305 RAMAC system, generally acknowledged as the first (commercially successful) computer to feature what we would now call a disk drive or hard drive (i.e., data stored on a magnetic disk and accessed via a moving head). An EETimes article described RAMAC's capabilities and size as follows: What's pictured above is indeed the IBM 350 disk storage unit utilized by the IBM 305 RAMAC: An IBM RAMAC 305 with a 350 disk storage unit leased for about $3,200 per month back in 1957 (roughly $29,000 in 2020 dollars). Over a thousand of the 305 systems (one of IBM's last vacuum tube units) were manufactured before production ended in 1961, and the 305 was withdrawn in 1969.
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