Drum memory

File Format
Name	Drum memory
Ontology	Physical File Formats Drum memory
Released	1932

Drum memory is an archaic form of magnetic data storage using rotating drums. It was invented in 1932 and used widely in computers of the 1950s and 1960s, often as the main memory of a computer. It differed from hard disks by having a separate read/write head on each track of the medium.

Links

• Wikipedia article
• The Story of Mel (anecdote of early programming involving drum memory)