September 13, 2006 is the 50th anniversary of the hard drive, developed by an IBM lab in San Jose.
RAMAC, the original hard drive, a funny-looking giant machine with 50 spinning, 24-inch-wide disks covered with red paint… cost about $50,000 a year to lease in 1956 dollars — equivalent to nearly $350,000 today — and had 5 megabytes of information.
The building where IBM developed RAMAC still stands at 99 Notre Dame Street in San Jose. San Jose declared the site a historic landmark. And last year, the IEEE installed a plaque in the building to commemorate the invention.
Last year I had the misfortune to spend a few frustrating hours in the lobby of that building, making my way through the legal system. Being able to view the historical display and the history of RAMAC made that visit a bit more tolerable.