The IBM 370 printer was used on the

IBM 305 RAMAC The IBM 305 RAMAC was the first commercial computer that used a moving-head hard disk drive (magnetic disk storage) for secondary storage. The system was publicly announced on September 14, 1956,

computer system, introduced by IBM on September 14, 1956. The 370 was connected to the 305 by a serial data line from the ''S track'' of the computer's

drum memory Drum memory was a magnetic data storage device invented by Gustav Tauschek in 1932 in Austria. Drums were widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s as computer memory. For many early computers, drum memory formed the main working memory ...

(the printer and punch both obtain information from a single output track, the control as to what information to print or punch and how, is within the print and punch units) and printed 80-columns with a punched tape controlled carriage. Line formatting was programmed by inserting wire jumpers into a

plugboard A plugboard or control panel (the term used depends on the application area) is an array of jacks or sockets (often called hubs) into which patch cords can be inserted to complete an electrical circuit. Control panels are sometimes used to di ...

control panel. The printer mechanism used an eight sided, seven position (56 character) print slug in a horizontal orientation. The ''X'', ''O'', and ''2'' bits of the character code rotate the slug and the ''1'', ''4'', and ''8'' bits selected the position. The platen hammer then struck the paper from behind, causing the selected character to print. Of the 56 characters on the print slug, only 47 were printable with the standard valid character set of the IBM 305 computer—the complete alphabet, numbers 0–9, and eleven special characters (48 characters, including the blank character).305 RAMAC Manual of Operation
IBM, April 1957. The printer can achieve the speed of 50 columns per second, with processing of 30 cards per minute; At two seconds per line can be achieved 1,800 lines per hour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibm 370

370 __NOTOC__ Year 370 ( CCCLXX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Valens (or, less frequently, year 1123 '' ...

IBM 0370 Computer-related introductions in 1956