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

My favorite fictional-sounding-but-real storage device is the Stringy Floppy!

When I hung out at Radio Shack after school to play with the TRS-80's, some guy came by and showed his off, and I was in awe, and so jealous at how fast it was! I was sure that Stringy Floppies were the wave of the future. You didn't need to rewind them like tapes, because they wound back around!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exatron_Stringy_Floppy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBfNy021K2Q

Then there was the Transputer!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transputer



The Transputer is a success; a lot of the ideas developed for it are mainstream today, even if we don't call it a transputer.

Kind of like all of the ideas from AI in the 70s and 80s that worked we don't call AI anymore.


> You didn't need to rewind them like tapes, because they wound back around!!!

You physically can't because they spool from the center like an 8-track tape. Probably why they didn't catch on rewinding lets you treat it more like a really slow hard drive.




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

Search: