[Info-vax] Databases versus RMS

[Paul Sture]

On Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:20:38 -0700, abrsvc wrote:

> In the days of the stepper motor, that was a problem.  In more modern
> drives, the actuator arm is driven by a coil so no real friction or
> contact points.  Usually it wouldbe in the "home" position as well  The
> biggest problem was the current required to start the unit spinning. 
> With the drives spinning, the amount of power required to keep it that
> way is significantly less than to start it spinning.  This allowed the
> total power required to both spin and record the data to be much less in
> both capacity and endurance.

There was a way to link up RM05 disks so that if you switched them all on 
at once they would only spin up one at a time.  The power draw of the 
four we had spinning up at the same time was enough to trip the circuit 
breaker.

-- 
Paul Sture