The Evolution of Storage

Devices

1956- IBM 350

The IBM 350 was the first disk drive

introduced by IBM, and was the size of a
large wardrobe, but contained a very
small amount of data compared to todays
data size, but back then it was a major
invention.
It had a data storage capacity of
about3.75MBand was available on lease
at$3,200per month. Way too expensive?
But this was the only choice back then.

1961 IBM 1301

Though the physical size didnt change much,

the IBM 1301 had greater storage capacity
than the IBM 350 and was the first ever hard
disk drive to use heads that were designed to
float in thin air over the tracks and read data
from the disks.
The IBM 1301 took a leap in terms of storage
with respect to its predecessor and had the
capacity to hold about19MBof data and was
available on lease for $2,100 per month or
could be purchased at the hefty price
of$115,500.

1962 IBM 1311

Finally the issue of physical space needed to

accommodate a hard disk drive was realized and hard
disk drives started to get a little smaller, from large
wardrobes to a pretty small box, and the IBM 1311 was
a good example of it, looking considerably like a
washing machine. Due to the change in its dimensions
it saved a lot of space and also had better components
which did a better job than its predecessors.
This was the first hard disk drive to introduce
removable disk packs, each disk pack containing
about2 million characters. It had twice the
recording density than the previous version.
This disk drive had special features such asScan
Disk,Direct
Seek,Track
RecordandSeek
Overlap.

1964 IBM 2311

This model looked similar to the previous

version, but certainly had a lot more
capacity and better performance than its
predecessor. This hard disk drive stored
about7.25MBof data in a single
removable disk pack, and offered good
data transfer rate of about156KB/s.
So it was like a revamped version of the
previous one with better capacity and
slightly smaller dimensions.

1965 - IBM 2314

Finally a little change in the appearance, and also

quite a lot of improvements too. The IBM 2314
had the capacity to store29MBof data in a
single disk pack, and of course these disk packs
could be removed and added. The data rate was
about doubled, from about 156KB/s to310KB/s.
The fun fact about this hard disk drive is that,
because of its appearance it was called aPizza
Oven. So firstwardrobes, thenwashing
machinesand nowpizza ovens, lets see how
far it gets.

1970 IBM 3330

After years of development, IBM managed to pack all

the components of a hard disk drive into a much
smaller shell. Less physical space and portability has
always been a priority for electronic devices, and thus
IBM gave its customers exactly what they needed.
The IBM 3330 codenamedMerlin, was considerably
smaller
than
the
previous
model,
stored
about100MBof data in each disk pack, and offered a
great data transfer rate of about806KB/s.
One of the best and most notable features of this hard
disk drive was the use of error correction methods to
tolerate small imperfections on the disk surface, and
thus reducing costs and making them robust.

1976 IBM 3350: Introduction of Fixed Disk Drives

IBM introduced the first hard disk drive with nonremovable disks, which were sealed inside the drive,
like they are in the present drives, so this is the
moment where the hard disk drives started to look like
the modern disk drives.
This disk drive had the capacity to hold317.5MBof
data on each storage drive, offering a total
of635MBfor storing data in the whole unit, and the
data transfer rate was further increased to
about1.17MB/s.
The IBM 3350 had a price tag of about$62,500back
then, thus we can now see the trend we follow today,
i.e., better performance and storage yet reduction in
price.

1979 IBM 62PC Piccolo:

The Worlds first 8-inch HDD

As time passed, more and more people were owning a

computer and thus there was a need to make the size of
hard disk drives small so as to enable people to carry
data from one location to another or in other words
increase portability.
The Piccolo paved the way for the creation of the small
sized hard disk drives which we use today, as you can
see this hard disk drive was only8-inch long, and was
a revolutionary product back then. Due to its small size,
this disk drive had the capacity to hold only
about64.5MBof data in it.
This was the moment when those large boxes got
converted into small devices, very similar to what we
see and use today.

1980 IBM 3380: The

Worlds first gigabyte HDD

A few more years down the line, and hard disk drives were
getting smaller and smaller but only a change in physical size
wasnt going to satisfy the needs of the people. Developments in
computer software demanded a greater capacity to hold data
within the hard disk drives.
Finally in the year 1980, IBM made another innovation, the
worlds first gigabyte hard disk drive. It looked more like an
engine, but back then it was the most powerful hard disk drive
on the planet. This drive had the capacity to store
about2.52GBof data and offered data transfer speed of
about3MB/s.
This drive was about the size of an average refrigerator and was
priced at about$81,000back then. Here we see an increase in
the price as compared to the previous version, but looking at the
high leap in the storage capacity, the price was just fine.

1980 Seagate ST-506: The Worlds first 5.25-inch HDD

After the invention of the worlds first gigabyte

hard disk drive by IBM, Seagate introduced the
worlds first 5.25-inch hard disk drive, which was
yet another step in reducing the size of disk
drives and another awesome innovation. This
little item could store about5MBof data and had
a price tag of$1500at that time.
Though the capacity was very low, due to
compact size of it, it was a great choice for
carrying documents and other files which dont
consume much space and needed to be carried
from place to place.

1983 Rodime RO-352: The Worlds first 3.5-inch HDD

Another year and another invention, and this

time its from a new company named Rodime,
who gave the world its first 3.5-inch hard disk
drive, which had the capacity to hold11MBof
data in that little box. Too bad that this little
drive was only capable of holding a few photos
or a single song of 320KBps bitrate.
We use 3.5-inch HDD in our computers still
today, and though this was a primitive version
of 3.5-inch disks and offered a low data
transfer rate of about600KB/s, this was the
start of a whole new revolution.

1988 PrairieTek 220: The Worlds first 2.5-inch HD

Companies around the world were in competition to

reduce the physical size of hard disk drives, while at
the same time increase the capacity to hold data.
PrairieTek introduced the worlds first 2.5-inch hard
disk drive, which had the capacity to squeeze
about21.3MBof data in it, though not a very large
capacity, still better than the Seagate ST506(5MB)and Rodime RO-352(11MB).
As now we can see that the size is really getting
smaller and smaller, from large wardrobes to small
devices, and surprisingly it has about double the
capacity as that of the 3.5-inch HDD introduced by
Rodime, though being an inch smaller.

1991 Integral Peripherals Mustang 1820: The Worlds first 1.8-inch HDD

A few more years later, things are really

getting tiny, and here we have another
example of goodness packed into a small
size. This little hard disk drive had the
capacity to store about21.4MBof data,
in spite of being this tiny.
Today a standard phones memory card
which is way smaller than this, holds
gigabytes of data, but back then this was
no less than a miracle.

1997 IBM Deskstar 16GP

The need to store more data onto hard disks

was increasing at a faster rate than the
companies abilities to create hard disks to
meet it. But this was not going to stop IT
giants like IBM from creating wonders.
IBM broke all records with its monster hard
disk. The Deskstar 16GP was a leap forward
among the other 3.5-inch hard disk drives,
with a capacity to store about16.8GBof
data but with a very high price tag of
about$420,000back at that time.

2000 Trek ThumbDrive: The Worlds first USB Flash Drive

After years of development it suddenly seemed that

magnetic disks werent the only medium of storage
available to people.
In the year 2000, a new storage device based on a
technology called Flash Storage, which is a fast
storage technology, came into existence with a
decrease in size again. Trek was the first company to
release a commercial USB Flash Storage drive, called
Trek ThumbDrive.
This little drive had the capacity to hold about8MBof
data, about 4 times that of a floppy disk, and was
priced at about$28. This was the start of the range of
flash storage devices that we use today, and at a price
that everyone could afford.

2003 Toshiba 2GB USB Flash Drive

USB Flash Drives were gaining capacity,

and in the year 2003, USB drives had the
capacity to store about2GBof data
packed into a small area. In 1980, the IBM
3380 which was about the size of a car
engine had the capacity to hold about
2.5GB of data, and in the year 2003 a tiny
flash drive ha nearly the same capacity.
Thats like a whole lot of songs or an HD
movie(compressed)right in your pocket,
ready to be carried anywhere.

2006 Sandisk 2GB microSD Card

USB Flash Drives werent small enough, so in the

year 2006, Sandisk released a new product called
themicroSDcard, having the capacity to store
about2GBof data, and was given a nifty price tag
of$99back then.
Its amazing that while the size of storage drives
has finally shrunk fromlarge trunksto barely the
size of a coin, the data storage capacity has
increased to a large value. In the year 1956 we
could barely fit 3.75MB of data onto a hard disk
drive that was of the size of a regular wardrobe,
and now after 50 years of evolution about 2GB of
data can be stored onto this tiny little drive.

2007 Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000: The Worlds first 1TB HDD

Hard disk manufacturers werent sitting idle, and

to prove it, Hitachi released the worlds first1
terabyte (1024GB)hard disk drive, which was a
milestone in the hard disk evolution history. This
amazing drive had a data transfer rate of
about300MB/sand was priced at$399at that
time.
Having one of these meant having a ton of
movies, music, files, games and all, and forgetting
about the need to delete any files. I really have a
hard time filling my 1TB HDD up, currently I have
only filled half of it with a bunch of movies, 4K
resolution videos, music, etc.

2013 What We have now

Over the years, technology has evolved and our

lifestyle has changed, so has our everlasting
hunger for more and more data storage capacity.
After all these years of evolution we now have
some extremely high capacity and powerful
storage devices which are shaping the world of
computers and meeting our current needs for
data storage.
First is, the Seagate 4TB hard disk drive, a sleek
HDD offering enormous storage space(4TB),
and high data transfer rate of nearly1GB/s, but
with a comparatively low price tag of$190.

Second is the worlds first1TBUSB

flash drive introduced by Kingston. This
is surely one powerful little device with
a data transfer rate of about240MB/s,
but has the price tag of a cheap car.
Current reports have unveiled that this
little drive will cost about$3,400.

Third is the Lexar microSDXC memory

card, which offers a storage capacity of
about256GB,
data
transfer
at90MB/sand
has
a
price
tag
of$999.99.

OTHER STORAGE SOLUTIONS

Besides these there are other storage

devices which have evolved in a similar
way. I would like to mention two such
technologies here:

Cloud Storage

This is another great leap in the storage technology.

To give a brief introduction, all data is stored in a
storage called The Cloud which can be accessed
from any device and from anywhere using the
internet.
This has made data much more portable, as now
we dont need to carry hard disks or any storage
device with us. We can access our data anywhere
and anytime from any device we want using Cloud
Storage technology.
Currently Cloud Storage is available from a number
of providers such asDropbox,Box andGoogle
Drive.

Apple AirPort Time Capsule

Another storage device worth mentioning is

the Apple AirPort Time Capsule. The Time
Capsule is a wireless storage device from
Apple Inc. This storage device has the
capacity to store up to3TBof data and
operates using Wi-Fi to connect with an iMac
or an Apple device.
Currently a 3TB version of this storage
device is available at$399. It can easily be
connected to an Apple device, for superfast
data transfer and automatic backups.