History of IBM CKD Controllers

Beginning with its 1964 System/360 announcement, IBM's mainframes initially accessed CKD (Count key data) subsystems via a channel connected to separate Storage Control Units (SCUs) with attached Direct Access Storage Devices (DASD), typically a hard disk drive. This practice continued in IBM's larger mainframes thru System/370; however low end systems generally used lower cost integrated attachments where the function of the SCU was combined with that of the channel, typically called an Integrated File Adapter.

History of IBM CKD Controllers

Beginning with its 1964 System/360 announcement, IBM's mainframes initially accessed CKD (Count key data) subsystems via a channel connected to separate Storage Control Units (SCUs) with attached Direct Access Storage Devices (DASD), typically a hard disk drive. This practice continued in IBM's larger mainframes thru System/370; however low end systems generally used lower cost integrated attachments where the function of the SCU was combined with that of the channel, typically called an Integrated File Adapter.