History of data storage
Did you know that it would take around 6 000 floppy disks to store one DVD – or 4 500 compact cassettes, with a playback time of 280 days? Here’s a brief look into the history of data storage.
The oldest known form of data storage is from 1725 and was done by Basile Bouchon when he used a perforated paper loop to store patterns that were to be used on cloth.
But the first real patent for some kind of data storage is dated back in 23 Sep 1884 by Herman Hollerith (pdf) – an invention that was used for nearly 100 years until the mid 1970s.
Here’s an example of how a typical punch card could look like, it’s a 90 column card punched in 1972. As you can see the amount of data that could be stored on a punch card wasn’t much, and their primary use wasn’t to store data, it was to store settings for different machines.
90 column punch card [fourmilab.ch]
The first known use of the paper tape was back in 1846 by Alexander Bain – the inventor of the fax machine and the electric printing telegraph. Each row on the tape represents one character, but since you easily could create a fanfold you could store signigicantly more data using the punched tape compared to the punch cards.
Paper tape [Wikipedia]
In 1946 RCA started the development of the Selectron tube. It was an early form of computer memory and the largest selectron tube measured 10 inches and could store 4096 bits. As these tubes were very expensive, they were very short-lived on the market.
The RCA Selectron 1024-bit prototype [att.net]
In the 1950s magnetic tapes was first used by IBM to store data on magnetic tape. Since one roll of magnetic tape could store as much data as 10 000 punch cards it became an instant success and became the most popular way of storing computer data until the mid 1980s.
Magnetic tape [Wikipedia]
The Compact Cassette is of course one kind of magnetic tape but since so many of us have used them, it deserves a special section. The Compact Cassette was introduced by Philips in 1963 but it wasn’t until the 1970s it became popular. Computers like the ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64 and the Amstrad CPC used the cassettes to store data. A standard 90 minutes Compact cassette could store around 700kB to 1MB of data on each side of the tape. How about buying 4500 compact cassettes and create a backup of your favorite DVD – it would only take 281 days to restore the data, hehe.
The magnetic drum was a 16 inch long drum spun that did 12,500 revolutions per minute. It was used to give the IBM 650 computer about 10 000 characters of main memory.
The magnetic drum [IBM.com]
In 1969 the first floppy disk was introduced. It was a read-only 8 inch disk that could store 80kB of data. 4 years later, in 1973, the a similar floppy disk with the same size could store 256kB of data plus it was possible to write new data again and again. Since then the trend has been the same – smaller floppy disks that could store more data. In the late 1990s you could get ahold of 3 inch disks that could store 250 MB of data.
Floppy disks [wikipedia]
IBM unveiled the 305 RAMAC on September 13th, 1956. The computer was nothing but a revolution since it could store up to 4.4MB of data (5 million characters) – an enormous amount of data back then. The data was stored on fifty 24 inch magnetical disks. More than 1000 systems were built and the production ended in 1961. IBM leased the computers for $3 200 per month.
IBM 305 RAMAC [IBM.com]
The hard drive is still a product that is under constant development. The Hitachi Deskstar 7K500 that you can see on the image above is the first hard disk drive that can store 500 GB of data – or approxmiately 120 000 times more data than the world’s first hard drive IBM 305 RAMAC. The trend is crystal clear; for each year we get cheaper drives that can store more data faster.
In 1958 the Laserdisc technology was invented, but it wasn’t until 1972 that the first videodisc was demonstrated in public. 6 years later, in 1978, it was available on the market. It wasn’t possible to store data on the discs, but they could store video and image data with a significantly higher quality than tecnniques like VHS.
The Laserdisc [wikipedia]
The compact disc originates from the laser disc, but it’s much smaller (and stores less data). It was developed in a co-operation between SONY and Philips back in 1979 and the Compact Disc reached the market late in 1982. A typical CD of today can store 700 MB of data.
Compact disc [wikipedia]
A DVD (Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is basically a CD that uses a different kind of laser technology. The laser’s wavelength uses 780nm infrared light (standard CD use 625nm to 650nm red light) which makes it possible to store more data on the same amount of space. A dual layer DVD can store 8.5GB of data.
DVD [wikipedia]
There’s a lot of modern data storage media like memory cards we haven’t mentioned here, but in the near future we are about to experience the launch of Blu-Ray and HD DVD – two competing formats which basically just is another version of the compact disc that can store even more data thanks to the blue-violet laser technology. It will be interesting to see which format wins, but Blu-Ray seems to be the gaining in popularity.
But it’s when we start to look beyond these formats things are starting to get interesting. What would you say about having a Holographic Versatile Disc that could store 160 times more data than a Blu-Ray disc. 3.9 TB of data on one disc – or approximately 4,600 to 11,900 hours of video using MPEG4 encoding – or would you rather spend a fortune on a couple of billion punch cards?
Yeah, that’s right. It would take approximately 90 million punch cards to be able to store one 8.4GB DVD, or 6 000 floppys, or 4 500 compact cassettes ( it would only take 281 days to restore the data, hehe) – or if we would turn it the other way around, it would take 0.2% of a 3.9TB Holographic disc…
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May 27th, 2006 17:00
[...] History of data storage Tag: Gadgets | Posted on 05.27.06 | [...]
May 27th, 2006 17:55
[...] [...]
May 27th, 2006 21:40
Very cool post. Ive never heard of the magnetic drum before.
May 28th, 2006 03:46
The dvd laser’s wavelength uses 780nm infrared light (standard CD use 625nm to 650nm red light) am I wrong or is it the other way around, shorter wave red is for dvd and longer ir for cd?
May 28th, 2006 03:56
“It will be interesting to see which format wins, but Blu-Ray seems to be the gaining in popularity.”
It’s also gaining in notoriety, if we look to history, most Sony backed proprietary formats fail compared to competing formats. HD-DVD will be more successful, a prediction, as well as the current state of affairs.
May 28th, 2006 05:43
Great article, but why is there no mention of flash memory? No moving parts is a revolution! =)
May 28th, 2006 20:04
No magnetic core memory?
(we had the drum in highschool, but never got to see it)
May 29th, 2006 12:06
[...] Fosfor Gadgets has a neat summary of various methods of storing (digital) data: History of data storage. The oldest known form of data storage is from 1725 and was done by Basile Bouchon when he used a perforated paper loop to store patterns that were to be used on cloth. [...]
May 29th, 2006 18:27
[...] http://gadgets.fosfor.se/history-of-data-storage/ [...]
May 30th, 2006 10:56
I thought that was kind of interesting just to read through, although it doesn’t really go into great detail, I didn’t see anything about magnetic tape drive storage, it mentions it for old use, but doesn’t mention that it’s still used today.
Also there is nothing about flash memory/storage and hard drive’s don’t extend past internal 3.5″ hdd’s, nothing it mentioned about laptop hdd’s external hard drives and things such as ipod’s mp3 players etc.
Anyway enough knocking, read it, it’s worth the read.
Anyway I’m not trying to put the article/whatever down, it was worth the read, just thought there were a few extra things which could/should have been added.
June 1st, 2006 16:15
[...] [...]
June 6th, 2006 17:03
Gee let’s see-
RAM of all sorts
Plug Board
CRT Memory
Punch Card used as RAM (Wang Toaster)
Magnetic Card (Early IBM word processor)
Magnetic Wire Recording
Magnetostrictive Delay Lines
Bubble Memory
IBM Data Cell
Tape/Disk Silos
Plated Wire Memory (IBM 360/95)
Hierarchical storage devices (RAM -> Disk -> Tape/optical)
Holographic Memory
Entangled Quanta …
June 7th, 2006 16:15
[...] En Fosfor Gadgets esta este review sobre cómo han pasado los años por los “artilugios” que nos sirven para guardar datos. Estan los más importantes o bien, los que han de una u otra manera revolucionado el mercado (así que vengan a decirme que falta el Zip o el mini SD). Mis primeros acercamientos a la “microcomputación” fueron con los Atari 800 de la “sala de computación” de la escuela y con un Sinclair de un compañero de colegio. Eran años en los que los juegos se caargaban durante 20 o 30 minutos con una cassetera y cassete regrabado de música. Vivía yo en provincia y las unicas computadoras que conocía bien eran os arcade del “Delta 21” y las que aparecían en Star Trek, Perdidos en el espacio y la Pandilla Computarizada (¿se acuerdan de esa?) [...]
June 13th, 2006 09:46
I just hope we will stop using discs as storage and advance to a more static media, like the memory sticks we have, only bigger. The problem with any disc is the wear and tear of using them ultimaly damages them. with a memorystick the 1’s and 0’s can be saved inside a plastic cover.
My hope is that we will explore saving data on organic tissue, or crystals.
June 14th, 2006 11:43
woow! amazing!
June 25th, 2006 09:24
we want to buy data punch plastic roll in soft matirial and very strong quality to use again and again on embroidery saurer machine
size is 140 mm wide and lenth can be any lenth no problum if you can help us for this pl
we need them for indian market
best regatds from shamji patel
August 18th, 2006 05:24
The History of Data Storage
I have been teaching a lot of storage courses over the past few years, along with courses on Security…
August 18th, 2006 15:58
u are real good
August 27th, 2006 07:39
La storia del Data Storage
Per i curiosi (ma non solo), questa mini storia sui supporti delle memorie di massa sarŕ di particolare interesse.Partendo dal 1725 per arrivare al 23 settembre del 1884, data in cui Hermann Hollerith invento la "punch card" utilizzata nel mondo
September 5th, 2006 21:25
The History of Data Storage
I have been teaching a lot of storage courses over the past few years, along with courses on Security
October 4th, 2006 23:54
There is a gap in the information provided. Jumping from 1956 to the 500gb omits a plethera of devices; the multi-disk removable plater drives (7 disks = 200 mb) and a lew of others. Also absent is the newer end of Solid State Drives. Good over view, just needs to be more inclusive.
October 5th, 2006 14:35
I hear that Living in a connected world
Has been teaching a lot of storage courses over the past few years, along with courses on Security
October 5th, 2006 23:05
Pretty good, only CDs use IR and DVDs use red lasers.
October 6th, 2006 22:11
Holy cow that is massive
October 11th, 2006 13:34
[...] [...]
October 13th, 2006 14:07
i think that your site is utter brilliance
October 29th, 2006 07:50
That’s amazing how fast technology is developing. I still remember times when I was loading games from compact cassettes.
November 1st, 2006 17:00
Good stuff. It occurs to me though you if you are talking about the Selectron tube, it would be interesting to talk about the Williams tube. Of course, since that isn’t really mass storage in either case, that opens up the door to core memory, plated wire memory (anyone remember that at all?), and my favorite mercury delay lines (as used on Edsac, for example). Those were really kind of similar to mass storage, particularly drum. Oh, and don’t forget magnetic bubble memory which kind of came and went with a whimper.
Then if you start with things like core, you start thinking about semiconductor memory. Of course, flash memory is a form of mass storage too.
But still, a great read. Lots of memories (no pun intended).
December 18th, 2006 09:26
What about printing colored characters onto sheets of paper? Maybe it’s too recent to be included.
January 4th, 2007 06:45
hey tnx for this article.. i am a student at the philippines and one of our subject which is FUTURE TECHNOLOGY is requiring as to have a topic about the different technology. and mine is about the Storage Devices. this article is really help me a lot. each month we have different theme.. (History, present, and future). We are already done with the History and Present Theme. My problem now is about the Future theme. I am required to give at least 6 storage devices that will be use in the future. I hope you can help me with this. tnx..
February 9th, 2007 18:51
nice
February 13th, 2007 18:43
nice article will add to me in writing engineer work because just such subject us work!! very curious
February 20th, 2007 18:49
Look at this, the smallest hard disc of Toshiba today:
http://www.bloog.cl/computadores/el-disco-duro-mas-pequeno-del-mundo/
February 22nd, 2007 17:31
[...] Link: Fosfor Gadget – History of data storage [...]
March 6th, 2007 19:21
Really helped me out in my semester paper titled trends in storage devices.
However, there seems to be no mention of Flash Disks.
March 12th, 2007 20:26
what about the flash memory storage, i don’t see any where, when that’s mentioned and it’s like the latest thing the most reliable type of storage there is around today and it’s popular everyone has one.
April 3rd, 2007 20:05
Dear Sir,
Why we can not see air?
June 24th, 2007 17:18
i need a disk for my brother word processor where can i buy one for 3.5-inch floppy disks mf-2dd double sided/double density/double track
June 26th, 2007 03:39
Could you please verify who the author or authors are of this article and where they gathered the data?
Thanks
July 10th, 2007 17:10
testing
October 29th, 2007 15:00
this is so dumb they dont even have anything on flash memory wowww do any of u people have livess this sites garbage
October 29th, 2007 15:01
WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
November 1st, 2007 10:59
I was wondering if i could use your picture of a CD for educational purposes, Thanks
January 28th, 2008 13:30
Really intresting to know the developments in storage medium.
February 4th, 2008 15:07
[...] History of data storage – Fosfor Gadgets (tags: speicher retro computer daten) [...]
February 4th, 2008 17:55
Things That you Should Know About Remote Computer Data Storage…
If you are wondering about remote computer data storage, then you should know that there are several things that you are going to need to learn about. After all, remote computer data storage is a very important and rather complex thing, and so thus you…
March 1st, 2008 16:07
thanx allllllllllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooooot
March 17th, 2008 04:04
Automatic Garage Door Opener…
Since I will be home this week, I plan to catch up on my paperwork, housework – and alll of those little projects that we always keep putting off – if you know what I mean… LOL!!!!!! Heck, I even looked up that today! Now tell me – how funny is that?…
April 4th, 2008 02:31
LOL u can buy 200 GB of memory for 20 bucks at http://www.thisisnotmyspace.com
April 4th, 2008 07:44
You will probably be interested to read “The History of Backup”: http://www.BackupHistory.com
August 7th, 2008 18:20
This information really useful !!
August 13th, 2008 09:24
I’m a HuSo!
September 4th, 2008 02:58
what is history of dat storage??!!
please tell me!!
i dont understand??
pliz….
October 28th, 2008 15:10
we already have the blu-ray and hd so how would it be “future”???????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 14th, 2008 21:34
Wouldn’t the earliest form of data storage be a book?
Woah man I just blew my mind.
February 6th, 2009 12:51
Thats really informative and i appreciate your hard work about this deep search i must stick on your page again just after my 70-294 exams for Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003, and upcoming after this 70-643 exams for Configuring Windows Server 2008 and for this i am well prepared to get my certificaion. i will be back again on your site as you have done a great job. Thanks for this useful information.
March 12th, 2009 11:18
Good post. Thanks for sharing.
May 27th, 2009 10:43
That’s helpful! Thanks!
June 29th, 2009 12:06
How is it possible that the laserdisc technology existed in 1958 when the laser wasn’t invented until 1961?
July 14th, 2009 01:32
[...] History of Data Storage to find [...]
September 9th, 2009 19:54
yuh
October 3rd, 2009 21:43
I used to hear horror stories from older people about when they had to use punch cards. You’d have boxes of the cards and you had to manually number them in order. Because if you didn’t and something happened where you dropped the cards, there would no know what to put them back in order and you’d lose all your data.
Am I glad technology has improved so we don’t have to worry about that.
October 7th, 2009 10:43
Fuck your fucking infoads bullshit it makes you lkook like an idiot who cannot spell or write.
For what I care you are an idiot!
October 26th, 2009 05:03
[...] http://gadgets.fosfor.se/history-of-data-storage/ [...]
November 20th, 2009 13:29
I wasn’t aware of many of these facts. Nice post and quite surprising too..
November 22nd, 2009 21:22
san diego yoga classes…
The purpose of the classes is to help you establish or deepen your daily meditation and yoga practice and help you achieve your highest potential. I hope you take advantage of this opportunity to learn the wonderful arts or meditation, yoga and pranaya…
November 29th, 2009 04:05
it is 2009 and i just learned some more cool stuff
thanks!
November 30th, 2009 10:44
Its a very interesting information. I’m very surprised to know about the all Data Storage Devices. Thanks a lot for sharing….
December 10th, 2009 12:35
good
January 2nd, 2010 20:59
Thanks it was really good article and it helped me in my course work
January 23rd, 2010 22:39
awsome
January 24th, 2010 11:35
[...] History of data storage [...]
February 4th, 2010 14:54
Where’s the a-track?