Drum memory is an obsolete magnetic data storage device. It was invented by Gustav Tauschek in 1932 in Austria and was widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s as computer memory. Some drum memories were also used as secondary storage.
For many machines, a drum formed the main working memory of the machine, with data and programs being loaded on to or off the drum using media such as paper tape or punched cards. Drums were so commonly used for the main working memory that these computers were often referred to as drum machines.
Tauschek's original drum memory had a capacity of 500000 bits (about 62 kilobytes). One of the early mass-produced computers, IBM 650, had about 8.5 kilobytes of drum memory, which in a later model (number 4) was doubled to about 17 kilobytes.
Drums were later replaced as the main working memory by memory such as core memory and a variety of other systems which were faster as they had no moving parts, and which lasted until semiconductor memory entered the scene.
Read more about Drum Memory: Design, Use and Legacy
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