Editing Digital Equipment Corporation (section)

==== Magnetic disk storage ====
[[File:Locale_RS6_DEC Scratch Pack.jpg|thumb|DEC disk platters]]
DEC was both a manufacturer and a buyer of magnetic disk storage, offering more than 100 different models of [[hard disk drive]] (HDD) and [[floppy disk drive]] (FDD) during its existence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ultimate.com/phil/pdp10/dec.disks|title=DEC disk histor|first=Phil|last=Budne}}</ref> In the 1970s, it was the single largest [[OEM]] purchaser of HDDs, procuring from [[Diablo Data Systems|Diablo]], [[Control Data Corporation#Magnetic Peripherals Inc.|Control Data Corporation]], Information Storage Systems, and [[Memorex]], among others.

DEC's first internally developed HDD was the RS08, a 256 kWord fixed-head contact-start-stop drive using plated media; it shipped in 1969.

Beginning in the 1970s, DEC moved first its HDD manufacturing and then its mass storage development labs to [[Colorado Springs]].<ref name="SaviersOH">{{cite interview|url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/08/102746014-05-01-acc.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227091643/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/08/102746014-05-01-acc.pdf |archive-date=2014-12-27 |url-status=live|title=Oral History of Grant Saviers|first=Grant|last=Saviers|interviewer=Tom Gardner|website=[[Computer History Museum]]|date=May 17, 2011}}</ref>

DEC pioneered a number of HDD technologies, including sampled data servos (RL01, 1977) and serial HDD interfaces ([[Standard Disk Interconnect]], 1983). The last internally developed disk drive family (RA9x series) used plated media, departing from the HDD industry trend to carbon overcoated sputtered media. DEC designated a $400 million investment to bring this product line into production.<ref name="SaviersOH"/> The RA92 (1.5 GB) was introduced in 1992, using a 14-inch platter.

DEC purchased its FDDs from OEMs such as [[Shugart Associates]], Toshiba, and Sony.