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In the top panel, an IBM engineer
holds a magnetic tape strip on which approximately
200,000 characters of information can be stored
on an IBM 2321 Data Cell Drive. Two hundred such
strips were contained in a data cell and 10 interchangeable
cells could be mounted in the vertical drum seen
in the drive (at right). The file's positioning
system rotated the drum to place a desired set of
magnetic strips beneath an access station.
When the drum was in position, an access device
(panel at lower left) selected the proper strip
from a data cell. Each strip had a coding tab
which identified it among the 200 strips in the
cell.
The strip was then moved over a recording cylinder
(panel at lower right) and past a read/write head.
This device retrieved information from the strip
for entry into the computer or recorded new data
on the strip. The magnetic strip was then returned
to its original location in the cell. |
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