Mass storage revisited

Abstract

Mass Storage as a functional need in computer systems is continually increasing in importance with the growing trend to interactive terminal-oriented systems, serving as peripheral or external on-line memory for storing a systems data base and resident programming systems. The associated capacity, plus the ever expanding magnitude of such data, far exceeds the range where "electronic" memory is economically competitive. Included in the product category defined as mass storage are drum, disk, tape, card, strip, and chip recording structures. Direct access storage is becoming a standard feature of computer systems, with much the same type of distinctiveness as the CPU and main memory have achieved.