History (1967): Memorex Disk Pack

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The first independent disk pack, the Memorex Mark I Disc Pack, marks the beginning of the emergence of the independent disk media industry.

Note that because of trademark concerns, Memorex adopted the spelling ‘disc’ instead of disk as used by IBM.

With the 1311, IBM invented removable media disk drives and disk packs and therefore was initially the only provider of the 1316 disk pack, which was used on both the 1311 and 2311 disk drives.

These were highly profitable items for IBM, with a manufacturing cost under $100 and a selling price of about $600.

As such it represented a huge target of opportunity for competitors, some of whom (e.g. CDC) were forced to buy IBM disk packs at list price and relabel them for use on their own equipment.

Availability of compatible disk packs appeared starting in the fall of 1967 from Memorex, a few months later from Caelus (January 1968), and subsequently became a commodity after entry by the major traditional media makers including 3M, CDC, and BASF, plus smaller startups including Athana, CFI, and others.