History: Applied Magnetics Corporation First Independent Supplier of Flying Magnetic Heads

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The OEM sale of heads by suppliers to the disk drive companies lower the barrier to entry, thereby enabling industry growth.

Applied Magnetics Corporation was the first independent supplier of flying magnetic heads, as a subcontractor of heads to IBM for use in the 1311 disk drive. The heads were made of laminated permalloy and hand-wound with about 30 turns of wire.

IBM had a development team using ex watch-makers to build prototype heads, but relied on AMC for larger volume manufacturing. AMC supplied several generations of heads to IBM,

AMC was also a supplier of tape heads to the industry, and an early entrant into thin film heads … but that program was beset with technical difficulties and never commercially successful.

The company, as well as a spin-off supplier Infomag, was located in Santa Barbara, CA, a relatively small community on the Southern California coastline, removed from the stronger infrastructure of Silicon Valley.