Print
Many of today's high-tech DSLR cameras still rely on CompactFlash (CF), a portable mass storage device SanDisk brought to market 15 years ago. The first CF cards, called Type I, were slightly thinner than the Type II cards currently in use, and early CF media relied on Intel's NOR flash memory. The format has since made the leap to higher density NAND flash chips, resulting in higher capacities, lower costs, and better write performance. Today's CF cards top out at 64GB.
(Image Credit: SanDisk)
Approximate Years in Use: 1994 - Present
Maximum Capacity: 100GB
By the mid-90s, the 1.44MB floppy had become ubiquitous with new PCs, but its low capacity made it ill suited for larger backups. Iomega looked to dethrone the aging standard in 1994 with the introduction of its Zip Drive. Superior to 1.44MB floppies in nearly every way, Zip disks touted a higher quality magnetic coating making it possible to use a smaller read/write head. Combined with a variable amount of sectors per track, Zip disks touted 100MB of data storage, or the equivalent of nearly 70 floppy disks, and a 1MB/s transfer rate that was twice as zippy as a floppy. Capacity would later balloon to 250MB and then 750MB. Unfortunately for Iomega, advances in other storage mediums ultimately all but killed off the Zip drive after a briefly successful run. Kind of like Vanilla Ice. Zip, zip, baby.
(Image Credit: Iomega)
Approximate Years in Use: 1994 - 2003
Maximum Capacity: About 750MB
Unlike the Zip drive, Iomega's Jaz drive, which first appeared on the scene in 1995, has more in common with a hard disk drive than it does with floppy media. Offering 1GB of storage from the outset (and later 2GB), Jaz drives used hard, non-flexible film magnetic platters spinning at nearly 5400RPM. Even the load/unloading scheme was similar to a traditional hard drive. But the tendency to fail, a high cost-per-gigabyte ratio, the need to keep the drive laying flat, and SCSI interface didn't leave users feeling jazzed about the Jaz.
(Image Credit: cadinfo.net)
Approximate Years in Use: 1995 - 2002
Maximum Capacity: About 2GB
The DVD emerged in 1995 as a successor to compact disks, and this time around, the optical media targeted PC users just as much as it did movie buffs. As a result, the transition from CD to DVD as the default storage medium went much faster than the transition from floppy disks to CDs. Now fourteen years later, DVDs are considered the most cost effective means of portable storage due to the low price of single-layer media and DVD burners. Much slower has been the adoption of dual-layer media, which increases capacity from 4.7GB to 8.5GB per disk, though for a long while at a much higher cost. The move to DVDs have been particularly well received by gamers, who grew tired of installing games from multiple CDs. The MPAA, on the other hand, has been decidedly less enthused. What a killjoy!
(Image Credit: Microsoft)
Approximate Years in Use: 1995 - Present
Maximum Capacity: About 8.5GB (dual-layer)
Comments are closed on this article
aloeindica
March 22, 2012 at 11:14pm
I feel strongly about it and really like learning more on this matter. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is extremely helpful for me.
paranormal experience
annahenderson
March 18, 2012 at 9:07pm
Storing data in a Computer is just a miracle. We can save whatever we want and whichever we want. Thank you for this wonderful peice of writing. will look forward for more articles.
anna
website - www.creditrestoreusa.com
aloeindica
February 17, 2012 at 1:02pm
I feel strongly about it and really like learning more on this matter. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is extremely helpful for me.
Digital news
url=http://e7news.com
samsonian42
January 25, 2012 at 1:48am
You made some good points here. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your post.
executive search recruiters
traceynajiyah
January 23, 2012 at 5:47am
This is really great post. Just in time, I've just run my new blog. and I really appreciate your time for writing this post. Buy Seroquel Online
piter
January 13, 2012 at 3:26am
i've seen lots of paper tapes and punch cards in my dads room and they were always a mistery to me in childhood
sahibinden
January 02, 2012 at 2:17am
I agree, I remember using 5.25 in the early 90's. Playing Oregon Train
on a green screen in computer class back in elementary school. My
nephew is 10 and does not even know what a floppy is. Some how that
storage held on for WAY to long, thank god for flash drives. Burning a
CD was never practical for moving pictures or music. My 1st MP3 I had
to use a file splitter to put it on a couple floppys to give to a
friend.<p>I think it might help me a lot in the related stuff and is particularly quite definitely useful for me. Adequately written I appreciate & must say good job..</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bizde.com" rel="follow">sahibinden</a></p>
saree manohan
November 30, 2011 at 11:36pm
I think it might help me a lot in the related stuff and is particularly quite definitely useful for me. Adequately written I appreciate & must say good job..
rajumina
November 26, 2011 at 1:03am
If you truly want to Sell a house fast, we buy property in the fastest and simple way on the internet.
Sell house quickly within 7 - 28 days. Sell house fast in any location within the UK and in any condition, get started today. For more details:
CCC-CRC
October 01, 2011 at 2:03pm
Computing and calculating............ Gimme a cassette tape and a cool summer day, In the mentime, if you are looking for get 1 of the latest gadgetds, you might need to finance it. Before you finance, consider no upfront fee <a href="http://www.consumercreditcapital.net">credit repair</a>
seregakiev
September 29, 2011 at 3:50am
Vital information for students like me. I'm gonna use it for my люстры in my IT Class. Thanks!
chargeoff8295
September 03, 2011 at 2:14am
This is extremely fascinating. I in fact value your writing type as well as your phrase choice much more than anything Smile. Credit score inquiries
backpack
August 09, 2011 at 3:24am
I bow down humbly in the presecne of such greatness. | SwissGer Backpack
Brenda123
August 27, 2011 at 2:29am
Very nice post even i would say that whole blog is awesome. I keep learning new things every day from post like these. Good stuff!
Website Design Services
Banner Design Services
Brochure Design Services
Brenda123
August 27, 2011 at 2:27am
Took a lot of time to read but I really found this very interesting and informative, thank you buddy for sharing. Logo Design
Custom Logo Design
Stationary Design Services
misterloftcraft
April 14, 2011 at 9:25am
I was just browsing a dll search website when I started reading your article here. As a matter of fact I was just talking with a friend of mine about storage devices and how much they cost. In my country a 16GB USB stick costs about 40$ and an external USB 320GB HDD costs about 60-70$. Now you tell me: which one would you pay for in order to save data on?
MyThesisSpace
December 27, 2010 at 5:23am
The Computer Data Storage Through the Ages From Punch Cards to Blu-Ray, is an amazing thing to remember because this things tells the imporment of the technology of the years it has come and it has become a lots easier to do work with these things now.
Written Essays
http://www.mythesisspace.com/
Term Papers
December 13, 2010 at 4:40am
Great Idea, That I have never seen before this , Basically I was searching this type of post a long time, But I could not find in the correct way, Well Today I am very happy that I got a meaning full post, Thank you very much .
http://www.researchtermpapers.com
Term Papers
December 06, 2010 at 4:44am
This post is very well writtten , It has a lot of good's facts, And I am happy to find your distinguished way of writing the post.. Now please keep more posting, I will also recommend this to my friends,
<a href="http://www.researchtermpapers.com">Term Papers</a>
TrevorDoe
October 28, 2010 at 7:19am
For quick transfers from one rig to another, does it get any sweeter than a 64GB USB thumb drive loaded with all of your favorite apps? Such a storage scheme is certainly worthy of dream machine status.
Sherrly
October 20, 2010 at 10:24am
paper tape contained patterns of holes to represent recorded data. But unlike its rigid counterpart rolls of paper tape could feed much more data in one continuous stream and it was incredibly cheap to boot.
teeri
September 27, 2010 at 5:08am
The long length presented plenty of opportunities for tears and breaks, so in 1952, IBM devised bulky floor standing drives that made use of vacuum columns to buffer the nickel-plated bronze tape. VCP-410 Testking - 640-816 Testking
maricelacamburn
September 22, 2010 at 2:18pm
I don't agree with everything in this post, but you do make some very good points. Im very interested in this topic and I myself do alot of research as well. Either way it was a well thoughtout and nice read so I figured I would leave you a comment.
<a href="http://www.spaloo.com">Bidet Seat</a>
George Batey
September 16, 2010 at 6:00am
while others hearken all the way back to cassette tapes. And if you've lived long enough to remember the IBM Punch Card first hand, just ask and we'll SPEAK LOUDER.
70-680 braindumps - SY0-201 braindumps - 640-802 braindumps
RickyWhore
September 02, 2010 at 2:37am
I found so many interesting stuff in your blog especially its discussion. [url=http://www.onlineticketspot.com/concerts/Kesha.php]cheap kesha tickets[/url] From the tons of comments on your articles, [url=http://www.onlineticketspot.com/concerts/Justin-Bieber.php]cheap justin bieber tickets[/url] I guess I am not the only one having all the enjoyment here! Keep up the good work.The post is written in very a good manner and it entails many useful information for me.[url=http://www.onlineticketspot.com/concerts/Green-Day.php]cheap green day tickets[/url] I am happy to find your distinguished way of writing the post. Now you make it easy for me to understand and implement the concept. Thank you for the post
Matthew John
June 03, 2010 at 2:31am
I am impressed!
The history is concise but the entertaining element is there. It reminds me of my professor in college who said that an essay writing piece must inform people without making it known to them. People often hesitate to learn something new, but this short story telling of facts is beyond my expectation. I was able to read from top to bottom.
Thank you.
Shakti123
April 30, 2010 at 2:11am
While Sun's StorageTek T10000 tape drive may seem out of place at this
spot in our timeline, we include it here to show the evolution of
magnetic storage, which is still used today. Introduced in 2006, the
T10000 can hold 500GB of data (the recently revised T10000B doubles the
capacity to 1TB) and takes advantage of serpentine recording
technology, which means it uses more tracks than tape heads. www.ordercomputer.com
garyrob
February 17, 2010 at 2:49am
Vital information for students like me. I'm gonna use it for my custom papers in my IT Class. Thanks!
linux_dork
May 01, 2009 at 10:43am
All of these nostalgia articles are TOP notch! Definitely keep them coming!*Meeeemmmmories!*
rmorr95295
March 09, 2009 at 12:21pm
And BetaMax? After all, cassette tapes (!!) were mentioned.
I worked for a company (Alpha Microsystems) that, for years, produced hardware that would copy data to video tape formats, using a standard analog video signal. Because the data was a video signal, any video format -- at the time, VHS or Beta -- could be used, and your backup drive was a standard VCR. The main disadvantages -- capacity (100-200Mb/cassette) and bandwidth (2.5 hours to back up 200 Mb) were not disadvantages at the time (early 80's), and were far outweighed by the low cost (+/- $200 for the "drive", and $5 or so for the "media") and reliability.
Kritikos
March 08, 2009 at 10:20am
Thanks for the article, but have alook at this Wikipedia site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_core_memory . I know Ladys wich "knittet" them in the Factory (Siemens) by Hand
Old Graybeard John
March 07, 2009 at 4:29am
Back in the 1970s our neighbor's company was replacing their "IBM card" system with magnetic tape.
They gave us boxes of IBM cards. They burn extremely well, and were excellent tinder for starting fires in our fireplace or while camping.
I'm old enough to remember when the job that trade schools advertised on matchbooks/TV etc was "keypunch operator."
And I'm only 48.
judithh
March 06, 2009 at 7:08pm
I am aware of at least one company still using a punched card system for billing in Feb. 2009. Some technology os more durable than others,
sophistem
March 06, 2009 at 3:55pm
Totally left out Bubble Memory. It's just as unique as any of the other major memory storage techniques. It was set to SAVE THE WORLD, but then super magneto resistance drives and the cheap densities won the day. I still have a laptop that uses it.
Ubik
March 06, 2009 at 2:39pm
You also neglected to mention the holographic disc drives with a base capacity of 300GB. They are supposed to be going up to 1.6TB per disc, but have been slow to be adopted and developed.
anonuser
March 06, 2009 at 1:51pm
MC Hammer wore "Hammer Pants". If you want to thank someone for Parachute pants, you should thank the break dancers of the early 80s, not MC Hammer and his "Hammer Pants" of the early 90s (assuming Hammer Don't Hurt Em is the beginning of MC Hammer's mainstream popularity, and thus ignoring his earlier work in the late 80s). As a child of the 80s, I am deeply disturbed by this article's "error".
Keith E. Whisman
March 08, 2009 at 8:31am
MC Hammer is now a preacher with his own congregation. If you want to meet him and talk to him look up his congregation and visit his church. He is a pretty good preacher.
Besides MC Hammer who is an actual success at preaching the word of God I've seen some has beens try it like Mr. T that flopped and alos DeBoe that also flopped and Kurt Russel that didn't even finish his sermon when he quit.
My advice to actors and singers is to not end up like MC Hammer and PAY YOUR TAXES.
anonuser
March 06, 2009 at 12:27pm
Excellent article, but you left out the fatal flaw in the story of hte Zip disks: the click of death.
Although they were popular, just about every owner of a Zip disk that I ever knew experienced it. It killed your drive and destroyed your data.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_of_death
SAS Rover
March 06, 2009 at 11:02am
This article is interesting (and nostalgic) to read, but it is definitely not a definitive or accurate list.
As well as the Hollerith (80 column) card, there was it's replacement that didn't catch on many places, a smaller card with 100 columns but about 2" narrower. Also, many, many places used the Hollerith card beyond 1975 (as stated on the site) into the 80's.
Magnetic tape did not get it's due recognition and that as well as the Hollerith card, it predated the digital computer. Fritz Pfleumer invented the magnetic tape in 1928 in Germany. BASF was the first commercial manufacturer of magnetic tape. In 1951 Univac made use of magnetic tape, a year before IBM did. There were some interesting uses of mag tape over the years. I remember very well the 8" & 16" tape reels using 3/4" tape maintained by human tape librarians and later the "tape farms" with robotic librarians with 2" wide spools of tape on small spindles in a "honeycomb" system.
The author did not address hard drives. IBM introduced the first disc drive in 1956. I remember removable single disc hard drives in mid range machines like DEC's, HP's and IBM 1200's, as well as, the external multi plater hard drives on the IBM 360, 370 and 3090 mainframes.
Does anyone remember the Bernoulli drives of the 80s before Zip and Jaz drives? At that time we thought that was a gigantic amount of removable data storage.
SAS Rover
Chattanooga TN
tortoiseandhare
March 06, 2009 at 9:03am
One device I haven't seen mentioned is the NCR CRAM drive. CRAM stood for Card Random Access Memory. The device was similar in size to an old mainframe tape drive, but instead of a spool of tape, the data was stored on a deck of 255 magnetic cards, each about 3" wide and 14" long. Each card in the deck had a series of notches on one end that was unique, and the entire deck would hang from a series of 8 half-moon shaped rods. The rods were mechanically manipulated so that just one of the 255 cards at a time would drop from the deck, go down a chute and position itself on a spinning drum, where it could be written or read. The card would remain on the drum until a gate was programatically opened, at which time the card would whoosh up the exit chute and around to the top of the deck, where it would rejoin the others. As you can imagine, there was a lot of air and noise involved when these were in operation. Each deck was held in a cartridge that compressed them together and enabled the deck to be easily hung on the rods. The cartridge could then be released and lifted away, allowing the airflow to spread the cards out so that they didn't stick to each other. A glass rod could be used to shake them up if necessary.
I operated a NCR 315 in the mid 60's with two of these devices, and occasionally two cards would drop at once, creating a terrible squeal when they both hit the drum. This would require a shutdown and extraction of the damaged cards, sometimes with needlenosed pliers. The damaged cards were replaced by notching blank cards with a hand held punch and replacing into the deck. If they had data on them, the card would be restored from like card in a backup deck. If there was no backup, well, too bad. When the company later converted to an IBM 360 mainframe, the only medium the two machines had in common was punched paper tape. We did a lot of punching and spooling during the conversion.
Google NCR CRAM for more information on these monsters.
PeteCal
March 06, 2009 at 8:08am
How about drum memory? A rolling drum with a magnetic head for each track. If your computer used 12 bit words, you had 12 heads to store and retrieve words in parallel. A lot faster than serial tapes.
Also, I built a LSI-11 based computer using an audio cassette tape drive from a car. Normally the max data rate would be 300 baud or so but I discovered the motor drive used only a few volts. I upped it to close to 12 volts so the tape ran a lot faster. Then I could record at 9600 baud.
And my Atari used 5 inch floppys.
PeteCal
wk
March 06, 2009 at 1:10am
Really great article, it remind me of many sweet memories;
my first computer: Zx spectrum using cassette recorder (waiting for 10 minutes loading, hold your breath and then TAPE LOADING ERROR)
then came Atari ST and Amiga using 3.5" flobby disks (loading 4 disks to run single application).
Funny thing is this article disclose person age!!
MPC is my home page
Dave-O
March 05, 2009 at 9:09pm
A few that were left out:
Diablo Disk - 1.6MB fixed, 1.6MB removable. 10" hard aluminum media.
CDC Hawk disk drives. 5 MB fixed, 5 MB removable. 10" Aluminum media.
IBM/CDC and other multi-disk washing-machine style disks. 25 to 500 MB 10" aluminum media.
Fujitsu Eagle-style 8" winchester disks.
IPI 5" hard drives from CDC in 250 MB.
And others I can't remember either.
One that stands out is the VRC drum memory. Gotta love a storage device that thakes 30 minutes to spin down after the power is turned off.
-Dave-O
TheBrez
March 06, 2009 at 6:32am
Before the introduction of the LS-120 there was also the Floptical. Roughly 20MB capacity on a 3.5" disk. SGI used them in the Indy and Indigo2 models and they were also available for PCs.
jtgd
March 05, 2009 at 7:06pm
How could they forget DDS (DAT) tapes? I had one when they were just 2GB back in the late 90's, and I believe they are still in use today.
Paul Braden
March 05, 2009 at 5:12pm
Wow...this is a great article. It brings back so many good memories. Please print more articles like this!
bobjr94
March 05, 2009 at 3:05pm
The problem with these kids now a days and there fancy dvd's and blu rays is they are not durable at all and they are to big.You cant hardly put a cd,dvd, blu ray,etc... in your pocket, maybe a coat pocket, but its not really very convent. Then they are very easily scratched, cds still kind of play with scratches, dvds are more picky and I have had blu rays that skip or get stuck and I can not even see the scratchs. I remember the old game cartrages, for nintendo or sega, they can sit on the floor for years, get stepped on, pop stilled on them, carry them in your pocket for a month and they still work. Hopefully with in a few years we move to all solid state storage. So when you goto the store and buy an album or movie, it will come in a flash card or drive of some type. No moving parts to break or wear out either on your media player.
________________________________
Check out Bob's SKA and Subaru stuff.
http://www.fakewrx.com
Featuring 24/7 Streaming SKA radio, links and Subaru projects and info.
dc10ten
March 05, 2009 at 3:14pm
why would you want to carry those around for? There are definatly portable storage solutions out there, DVD and BluRay certainly weren't geared towards that.
jfcarpenter
March 05, 2009 at 2:39pm
The IBM magnetic tape, in the reel format as shown in the picture, actually only had a capacity of 170 megabytes, at 6250 BPI and a length of 2400 feet. I don't know where the 1 terabyte number came from but it doesn't apply to the standard 9-track reel tape.
