General Information

Serial #

31692

Part Number

1

Total Parts

1

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

metal chassis/ synthetic casing front/ metal and synthetic working parts

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

21.0 cm

Width

15.0 cm

Height

8.7 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Computing Technology

Category

Digital computing devices

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Seagate

Country

Unknown

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Unknown

Period

early 1980's +

Canada

An American made computer memory device, presumably used in Canada. The donor, Grant Bechthold (1938-2008) was an electronics technician who went on to get his PEng. From 1959-1984 he worked at the National Research Council of Canada. He was part of the Man and Machine Studies group in M-50, which won an Oscar. He worked with Ken Pulfer, Nestor Burtnyk and Dr. Marceli Wein on computer music, graphics & animation (made the first really good animation software). The software was used to make Hollywood movies. During his last 3 ½ - 4 years, he worked in Biology on their computer networks. He also worked with CBC musicians and with Spar on the Canadarm. Mr. Bechtold made the first mouse in Canada but it was cannibalized and so no longer exists. Dr. Ken Pulfer went to Xerox Park and saw such a device and GB made one with optical encoders. "In 1968 Ken Pulfer and Grant Bechthold at the National Research Council of Canada built a mouse out of wood patterned after Engelbart's and used it with a key-frame animation system to draw all the frames of a movie. " (Ref. 1)

Function

A random-access-memory device for a digital computer, used to store instructions and data internally.

Technical

An example of one of the earliest internal hard disk drives developed for a personal computer. Engineer Alan Shugart had been involved in the development of the 5.25 inch floppy disk at IBM in the late 1960's and later formed the floppy drive pioneering firm of Shugart Associates. In 1979 he and former colleague Finis Connor founded Seagate Technology to offer users of personal computers greatly increased storage capacity in the form of a low-cost Winchester type hard disk drive. Their first product, released in 1980, was the ST-506, the first hard disk to fit the 5.25 inch form factor of the Shugart "mini-floppy" drive. It was successful and was later released in a 10-megabyte version, the ST-412. The ST-412 drive powered many of the first hard disk-equipped micro computers such as the original IBM PC-XT Refs. 2-7). Features of the ST-412 include: Capacity: 10 MB; Speed: 3600 RPM; Average read time: 85 ms; Cylinders: 306; Heads: 4; Sectors: 17 . (Ref. 4)

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

lable on side reads 'Seagate Technology/ MODEL ST-412/ SERIAL NO. 031692 MLC 94'

Missing

N/A

Finish

textured black casing front/ plated chassis/ gold coloured casing top/ multicoloured synthetic parts

Decoration

small applique rectangle, red with white edging, on front