FASTRAND

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FASTRAND was a magnetic drum mass storage system built by Sperry Rand Corporation for their UNIVAC 1100 series computers.

The size of one track of this drum, 1792 36-bit-words, is the origin for the Fastrand-Format also used on disk drives for UNIVAC 1100 series computers.

There were three models of FASTRAND drives:

• FASTRAND I had a single drum rotating at about 15 times per second or 880 RPM. The gyroscopic effect of this caused the unit to move about the computer room!
• FASTRAND II had two counter rotating drums at 880 RPM.
• FASTRAND III increased the recording density by 50%.

[edit] See also

• List of UNIVAC products
• History of computing hardware

[edit] External links

• The FASTRAND II