Epoch Systems Model 60 Optical Disk Jukebox

Epoch Systems Inc., founded in December 1986, was a hardware and software company providing Hierarchical Storage Management(HSM) file servers, and distributed storage management and data backup software. The company was founded by Ken Holberger, Chuck Holland, and Gregory Kenley. Holberger and Holland had worked together as part of the Eagle project described in The Soul of a New Machine. Kenley was a software engineer with expertise in operating systems and storage management. The company began in Marlboro MA and eventually moved to Westborough MA.

This Model 60 series Optical Jukebox contains one or more 5.25" magneto-optical drives that can use 650 MB or 1.3 GB WORM (write-once-read-many) or rewritable media. The drive can only access one side of the media at a time so the autochanger can remove the media from the drive and flip it over to the other side. The Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) software was run under the OpenVMS operating system to manage the Model 60. The HSM software could even keep track of disks that were removed from the Model 60 and stored on a shelf.

We also have a DEC RW 500 Optical Disk Jukebox that looks identical to the Epoch.