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Don't think of it as two MP3s. Think of it as 25-30 book-length volumes of text. That was plenty to handle payroll, inventory, sales, etc. for a business, espe
by Turing_Machine 4y ago
Don't think of it as two MP3s. Think of it as 25-30 book-length volumes of text.
That was plenty to handle payroll, inventory, sales, etc. for a business, especially since the data model back then was to only keep current, live data on the disk, while archiving old data off on tapes.
- xtracto 4y agoAlso, reading from the article they are mentioning that there was already tape storage (non random access). I can imagine that the 5MB random access disks were using as "working memory" and then results where still stored in tape.
- Turing_Machine 4y agoDefinitely. "Batch processing" often involved reading the data off one tape into the CPU, processing it, then writing it back out onto another tape. "Computer operators" basically did nothing but load the proper tapes onto the drives at the proper times (plus replacing printer consumables, etc.).
- mech422 4y agoThose were the 'I/O operators' where I worked... the 'system operators' (computer operators) were the guys that got the big bucks to alter jcl and drink coffee :-P I also worked at places with dedicated 'print pool' operators, that basically fed paper into printers/bursters/collators/binders.