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| Vast amounts of information could
be stored on data cartridges housed in the honeycomb
storage compartments of the IBM 3851 Mass Storage
Facility. The versatile device, part of the IBM
3850 Mass Storage System introduced in 1974, contained
a control unit that allowed it to locate a needed
cartridge and transfer it to a recording device
where the information could be sent to magnetic
disk drives. Each 3851 had two access devices, one
of which is shown here with a data cartridge, that
could move horizontally and vertically and could
rotate 180 degrees to pick up a cartridge. In a
system with two 3851 Mass Storage Facilities, a
user could store up to 472 billion characters of
online information, equivalent to either 4,720 disk
packs or a typical library of approximately 47,200
reels of tape. |
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