Peripheral Equipment:Magnetic Disk Units

Brief HistoryExhibits

year/month Timeline
1963  Fujitsu completed the FACOM 856, the company’s first magnetic disk unit.
1964  Fujitsu completed the FACOM 461 disk pack unit to create an interchangeable mediaby placing six 14-inch disks in the pack.
1965  Fujitsu completed the FACOM 631 magnetic disk unit using 41 disks with a diameter of 66 cm.
1965  NEC completed the NEAC-32 large magnetic disk unit to provide a 270million bit memory capacity for the FONTAC.
1966/08 NEC announced the E261, the company’s first 14-inch magnetic disk pack unit.
1967/06 Hitachi completed the H-8564, the first large magnetic disk unit produced byJapanese manufacturer.
1968/06 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 463 removable disk file unit, using 14-inch diskfor a cartridge.
1968  Mitsubishi Electric announced the M-811 small, fixed head disk unit for office computers and minicomputers.
1969/07 Mitsubishi Electric announced the M-834 removable disk pack drive unit that employed an electric magnetic-head positioning mechanism.
1970/03 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 472K, the company’s first cluster disk pack unit.
1970/05 Hitachi completed the H-8577 cluster disk drive unit for mainframe critical tasks.
1971/10 NEC annouced the N276 magnetic disk pack unit supporting 100 MB media.
1972/05 Mitsubishi Electric annouced the M-801 cartridge disk drive unit for small computerswith the fastest magnetic head positioning performance in the Japaneseproducts on that time.
1973/06 Hitachi completed the H-8589-1 magnetic disk drive unit that employed the renovated magnetic head positioning method using VCM drive servo control.
1973/10 Mitsubishi Electric annouced the M836 high capacity removable magnetic disk unit.
1973  NTT completed at 100 MB/spindle magnetic disk.
1973  Fujitsu completed the FACOM 477A cluster disk pack unit, which is equipped with a command retry function and an ECC function.
1975/06 Hitachi completed the H-8589-11 magnetic disk drive unit, which doubled the trackdensity.
1976/04 NEC annouced the N7751 14-inch fixed disk unit with a capacity of635 MB.
1976/05 Mitsubishi Electric completed the M2850 removable magnetic disk unit with medium capacity using high-density writing and reading technology.
1977/06 Toshiba started the shipping of the MK-100F/MK-300F Series of 14-inch fixed magneticdisk units.
1978/07 Mitsubishi Electric annouced the M2883 fixed magnetic disk unit optionally supportingfixed magnetic head.
1978/10 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 493 magnetic disk unit that employed non-removable (fixed) disk module, achieving high capacity.
1978/10 Hitachi completed the H-8595 magnetic disk unit that employs a fixed disk andCSS type light load head.
1978  NTT completed a magnetic disk storage unit with the world’s highest storage capacity of 800 MB/spindle.
1979/06 Fujitsu completed the M2301 (Swallow-1) high-performance magnetic disk for OEMthat uses 8-inch magnetic disks.
1979/10 NEC announced the N7755 14-inch fixed disk unit with a capacity of1270 MB.
1980/09 Mitsubishi Electric released the M2860 small fixed magnetic disk unit, whichused 8-inch magnetic disks.
1980  NTT completed the PATTY high-capacity magnetic disk storage unit, which used 8 small, high-density HDA (Head Disk Assembly) with a storage capacity of 400 MB each to achieve a total storage capacity of 3.2 GB.
1981/02 Hitachi completed the DK811-4 magnetic disk unit for OEM using 8-inch disks.
1981/10 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6421 magnetic disk unit, which employed a 10.5-inchsmall diameter media (446 MB).
1981/10 Hitachi completed the H-8576 magnetic disk unit, with a rotary actuator and acompletely sealed head disk assembly.
1981/10 Mitsubishi Electric annouced the M4863 5.25-inch fixed magnetic disk unit.
1982/03 Fujitsu completed the M2351 (Eagle-1) high-performance, high-capacity magneticdisk for OEM, which employed 10.5-inch magnetic disks.
1982/11 Hitachi completed the H-8598 magnetic disk unit with double the capacity and2.5 times the faster data transfer rates. compared to the conventionalmodel.
1982/11 NEC annouced the N7761 14-inch fixed magnetic disk unit, which employed the thinfilm head for the first time in Japan..
1983/09 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6425A4, B4, and C4 magnetic disk units with 10.5-inchsmall diameter media (630 MB/DE), achieving high-speed data transferof 3M/s.
1983/10 Fujitsu completed the M2235 (Humming-1) magnetic disk for OEM with 5.25-inchmagnetic disks.
1983/10 Toshiba started the shipping of the MK-50FB Series 5-inch magnetic disk unit.
1983/12 Hitachi completed the DK511-5 magnetic disk unit, which employed 5-inch magneticdisks.
1983/12 Mitsubishi Electric announced the MR521 thin 5.25-inch fixed magnetic disk unit.
1984/02 NEC announced the N7756 small high-capacity fixed magnetic disk unit, which useda 9-inch plated media.
1984/09 NEC announced the D5126 fixed magnetic disk for OEM, with a thin 5-inch disk, a capacity of 25 MB.
1985/07 NEC released the D3116 and D3126 3.5-inch fixed magnetic disks for OEM, the largestcapacity in Japan.
1985/09 NEC announced the N7765 high-capacity 14-inch fixed magnetic disk with a capacityof 5.37 GB.
1985/12 Hitachi announced the H-6585 magnetic disk unit, which employed high-resistancecoating disks.
1985/12 Mitsubishi Electric completed the M4875 8-inch fixed magnetic disk unit equippedwith a thin film head.
1986/08 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6425M4, N4 high-speed, high-capacity magnetic disk with the storage capacity of 1.26 GB/DE, doubled it compared to the conventional model.
1986  NTT completed the GEMMY high-speed, high-capacity magnetic disk storage unit equipped with four 2.2 GB high-capacity HDA to achieve the highest level of performance in the world with a storage capacity of 8.8 Gbytes.
1987/01 Fujitsu completed the M2225 (Picobird-1) magnetic disk for OEM, which employed a 3.5-inch magnetic disk.
1988/01 Toshiba started the shipping of the MK-130FA Series 3.5-inch magnetic disk unit.
1988/04 Mitsubishi Electric announced the E1880 Series that achieved high capacity and high performance as well as saving space.
1988/05 NEC announced the D5655 5-inch fixed disk for OEM, which had the highest storage capacity in Japan at 179.8 MB.
1988/07 Hitachi completed the H-6586-K magnetic disk unit, which used a thin film head, 9.5-inch disks, linear VCM, and a high-density mount frame.
1989/06 Hitachi completed the DK312C magnetic disk unit for OEM, which used a 3.5-inch disk and a digital servo system.
1990/04 Hitachi completed the DK516 magnetic disk unit, which was the top-of-the-line 5.25-inch full height size and employed a thin film head and a spatter disk.
1990/04 Fujitsu completed the F6427 high-speed, high-capacity magnetic disk, which used 8.25-inch disks to greatly reduce the equipment footprint and power consumption.
1990/07 NEC announced the N7795 high-speed, high-capacity 9-inch fixed magnetic diskunit.
1990/10 Hitachi completed the H-6587 magnetic disk unit, which used the coating disk final model and the world’s greatest actuator capacity.
1990/12 Hitachi completed the DK314C magnetic disk unit, which achieved the top-levelstorage capacity in Japan.