#143) Stanford Destroys $300,000 Librascope Disc Memory

Photos of the large 4 foot diameter disc memories that Librascope designed and manufactured in the 1960’s have been published in the past (see photo), but the experiences of the customers for these large memories were not widely known. A January 28, 1977 Stanford University memo found on the Internet, however, describes their experience.

In 1967 the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Stanford University purchased their 4 foot diameter disc memory from Librascope for $300,000. A short time before, a similar, if not identical, 4 foot memory was sold to Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (LRL) in Livermore, CA. Then in 1973, LRL donated their memory to Utah State University. Click here to view a copy of the detailed (97 page) March 10, 1965 Librascope proposal to LRL. Note, according to this "Large Scale Disc File" proposal, LRL's memory was patterned after Librascope's 473-L.

About a year after Stanford acquired their expensive disc, it had a massive malfunction that permanently destroyed half its memory capacity. Note, the large memory had five 4 foot magnetic discs (see photo). Stanford then sued Librascope, and collected $50,000. Soon after, Librascope reportedly discontinued production.

Finally in 1976, after nine years of (limited) use, Stanford's laboratory disconnected their memory from its laboratory computer, and received permission from their management to destroy it. The controller portion was given to Utah State University. Some parts of the memory were sold for scrap, and one or more of the disks were relegated to become oversize coffee tables. The remaining parts were auctioned off.

Click here to view a copy of the original January 28, 1977 Stanford memo describing the above history in more detail.

#124) Your Help Requested - Librascope Disc Memory History?

Nearly 60 years ago, Librascope and IBM were pioneers in the development of rotating disc memories that eventually led to the ubiquitous Terabyte disc memories used in personal computers today. Unfortunately, Librascope's contributions were not well documented, and we need your help. If you, or someone you know of, is familiar with Librascope's rotating disk memory development history during the late 1950's and early 1960's, please read on.

Last month I received an inquiry about Librascope's early rotating disc memories from Tom Gardner, a consultant associated with the Computer History Museum in the San Francisco Bay area. He also maintains a detailed website (click here) where, amongst other things, he documents the timeline for the history of disc memory development since 1956. However, Librascope's important contributions are not yet included, and Tom wishes to correct that.

From 1956 to 1967, the timeline only mentions IBM's contributions. However, from early 1960's advertisements in the trade magazines, we know that Librascope, along with IBM, was one of the first disc memory pioneers. Several of these early ('50's and '60's) advertisements are published on the Librascope Memories website. Click here and scroll through the various ads, and you will find many of them.

Tom has several specific questions, but he is especially interested in the Librascope L100 and L200 Disc Memory Series, which was advertised in the July, 1963 issue of Datamation. He also believes that a minor variation of this series was used in the ill-fated Librascope L-2010 Portable General-Purpose Digital Computer in 1962. If you, or someone you know of, can possibly help Tom, please contact him at: t.gardner@computer.org , and please copy me at: soren.cng@gmail.com.