final book al hoagland - Archive Server - Computer History Museum

CHAPTER 5
Personal perspectives on magnetic data storage during the 1960s and 70s
With the announcement of the IBM 1301 in 1961, I decided to write a book on noncontact
digital magnetic recording. A rapidly growing number of engineers were
becoming involved in magnetic disk storage within IBM, their computer industry
competitors and in newer companies now entering this market place. I saw that a need
existed for this information. I was regularly called upon to explain the technology since
no published references existed in this new and rapidly expanding field.
Before I began writing I was asked to undertake a two year assignment in the
Netherlands, starting in 1962, as a member of an IBM-Philips team set up to support the
Dutch government in addressing the conversion of their national banking systems from
tape to disk data storage in order to improve the speed of account transfers. Prior to
undertaking the assignment, I checked with both IBM San Jose and IBM Netherlands and
found that they would fully support me in my work on my book during my time there. I
was provided an office and secretarial support in Rotterdam. My book, entitled "Digital
Magnetic Recording", was published by Wiley in 1963. This was the first book covering
this subject, published at the time disk drives were becoming an increasingly important
factor in the electronic computer field.
Following my assignment in the Netherlands, I expected to return to the IBM San Jose
research laboratory in 1964, but after completing the book and just before I was to leave,
I was offered the position of Manager of Engineering Science at the newly established
IBM Research Center in Yorktown, New York. The formation of the Yorktown Research
Center was a huge commitment by IBM and the goal for Yorktown was to become the
equal of the famed Bell Laboratories.
The opportunity to participate at the beginning of the new IBM Research Center, where
major figures in the computer world were being hired, was very attractive. I left the
Netherlands in 1964 and moved to Stamford, Connecticut, about a half hour drive from
the new Research Center. I also interpreted the recent publication and positive reception
of my book as a good omen for the future of magnetic disk storage technology.
At Yorktown, my interactions with professional engineering societies and computer
groups increased greatly. My role as Manager of Engineering Science included exploring
the potential utility of scientific advances that could have a direct impact on mass data
storage. In the expanding engineering science group there was a great desire to explore
many data storage alternatives, including holography, electron beam recording and
magneto-optics. Work on magnetic cores and magnetic films for memory was also a key
area of activity at Yorktown.
Among new PhD hires, all saw the challenges and rewards associated with creating a new
electronic (or non-mechanical) technology for mass data storage, and viewed magnetic
disk recording technology as already mature and subject to all the limitations normally
associated with mechanical devices. IBM divisional responsibility for the development of
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