IBM 3741 Data Station
UvA Computer Museum catalogue nr 02.49
The Data Station was designed to eliminate keypunch equipment like the IBM Model 129, using the newly invented diskette (floppy disk) as storage medium. Indeed, the Data Station was the first IBM product to use read-write diskettes. These single-sided diskettes were 8 inches in diameter, with 77 tracks, soft sectoring, and room for 240 kB (equivalent to about 3000 punched cards).
Other novelties of the Data Station were that you could see what you were doing by looking at a CRT screen, visible in the opening at the left through a mirror, and that you could make corrections.
Our Data Station was found in the basement of the Amsterdam University Library. It has never been used.
rev May 30, 2015.
