Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

"Winchester 30 30" is pretty curious branding for a disk drive. For most people, that's a popular ammunition type for a lever action rifle: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/.30-30_Winchester


Yup, it was officially the "IBM 3340 Direct Access Storage Facility", but it was designed to have two 30-meg disk packs, so internally everyone called it the "30 30", and owing to the rifle, the project became codenamed Winchester. Strictly unofficial, but ubiquitous in certain circles.

The product actually shipped with either 35 or 70 meg disks, so it was an immediate misnomer, but the name stuck anyway. You'll find references to it in old mainframe texts.


Winchester became widely used as an industry term outside of IBM for HDDs.

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/10/business/new-from-silicon...




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2027 batch! Applications are open till November 2.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: