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Data Cell

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Data Cell

An early magnetic card storage device from IBM. Used from the mid-1960s until the mid-1970s, the Data Cell was designed by Alan Shugart, who later engineered the hard disk and floppy disk. More than 100 Data Cell drives were installed worldwide.

The drive held 10 removable cartridges (the "Cells") that were divided into 20 subcells, each containing 10 3x15" tape strips. With up to eight drives connected to a computer, it had huge direct access capability for its time.

The card was extracted from its subcell, wrapped around a read/write head and returned. Although accessing a card in half a second was a mechanical marvel, the cards were susceptible to wear and damage. Disks were becoming the norm, and all the card systems (Data Cell, CRAM and RACE) had a limited lifespan. See RACE and CRAM.


A Data Cell Carousel
Each drive held 10 removable "Cell" cartridges per carousel for a total of 400MB. (Images courtesy of IBM.)


A Data Cell Carousel
Each drive held 10 removable "Cell" cartridges per carousel for a total of 400MB. (Images courtesy of IBM.)







The Tape Strip
Two hundred tape strips (right) fit into one removable Data Cell cartridge. (Image courtesy of Frank da Cruz, www.columbia.edu/acis/history)
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References in periodicals archive
The Infobionics Cellular Database Management System places information in individual Data Cells, which can be flexibly compiled via Link Cells into an infinite number of DataSets (4).
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6 6 5 Compound name 7 7 5 Chemical formula 8 8 1 Empirical Formula 9 9 10 Literature references 10 A 1 Pearson symbol, structure type 11 B 20 Comments 12 C 1 Transformation matrix: initial to Crystal Data cell 13 D 1 Reduced cell 14 E 1 Crystal Data cell 15 F 1 Information on data collection (e.g., wavelength) 16 G 1 Further information on data collection (e.g., quality marks) 17 H 1 Space group extinction conditions 18 I 68 Powder diffraction data (d or 2[theta], relative intensities, hkl, editorial flags) 19 J 5 Internal update and revision information 20 + 1 Informaion for Hanawalt and Fink indices 21 * 1 Information for Max-d index 22 K (b) 1 Processing history and entry-end record (a)Maximum number of 80 character records for a given record type.
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In these cases, it would be reasonable to synchronize after every 1,366 data cells. This assumption is based on the current practice of using large PDUs to get high performance out of network protocols.
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He contributed to the development of numerous IBM mass storage products including the 2321 Data Cell. His final position with IBM was as manager of the Recording Technology Department in Boulder.
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So, 71 data cells starting from July 2010 to May 2016 were taken into consideration.
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For all the materials identified as being used at each process, the associated material traceability data cells are referenced.
IPC-1782: the new dawn of electronics traceability: One standard to rule them all
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