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Computer Storage Evolution

Data storage devices have evolved greatly over the last century from punch cards to modern cloud storage. Early devices included punch cards, magnetic drums from the 1930s, and Williams-Kilburn Tube RAM from 1947. Magnetic tape was first used for data storage in 1951, while magnetic core memory became standard from 1955-1975. Hard disk drives were introduced by IBM in 1956 and held more storage than early computers. Floppy disks, compact discs, Zip drives, DVDs, USB flash drives, and Blu-ray discs all increased portable storage capacity over the following decades. Cloud storage emerged in the 1990s, allowing data to be stored remotely and accessed via the internet.

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50 views2 pages

Computer Storage Evolution

Data storage devices have evolved greatly over the last century from punch cards to modern cloud storage. Early devices included punch cards, magnetic drums from the 1930s, and Williams-Kilburn Tube RAM from 1947. Magnetic tape was first used for data storage in 1951, while magnetic core memory became standard from 1955-1975. Hard disk drives were introduced by IBM in 1956 and held more storage than early computers. Floppy disks, compact discs, Zip drives, DVDs, USB flash drives, and Blu-ray discs all increased portable storage capacity over the following decades. Cloud storage emerged in the 1990s, allowing data to be stored remotely and accessed via the internet.

Uploaded by

Rics Sanchez
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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- Data storage devices have evolved in leaps and bounds over the last two decades.

According to Moore’s law, which is the observation that the number of transistors on
integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years, the fast development of
storage devices is only going to get faster. In 1890s, Punch cards were the first
mechanical storage method that holds about 80 characters. Although punch cards are
now obsolete as a recording medium, we still use punch cards to store data today, mainly
in standardized tests and voting.
In 1932, the Magnetic Drum was invented by Gustav Tauschek. Drum memory
consisted of a long metal cylinder coated in magnetic material, with rows of read-write
heads situated on the axis of the drum. It was once used as a primary storage device and
remained common in computing through the 50s and 60s, but is now used as an auxiliary
storage device.
The first form of random access memory (RAM) is invented in 1947. The
Williams-Kilburn Tube which featured the first fully electronic form of data storage is a
device that was 16 ½ inches long, 6 inches wide, and stored data by displaying a grid of
dots on cathode ray tubes, and sending a static charge through the tubes.
Invented in Germany in 1928, magnetic tape was first used to store data in 1951
on the Eckert-Mauchly UNIVAC I. Tape drives used motors to wind the magnetic tape
from reel to reel, while passing a tape head to read, write, or erase data.
During 1951, magnetic core memory was first used in the MIT Whirlwind
computer. It works by storing one bit of data on tiny magnetic rings, or cores. The more
magnetic cores you pack into a core memory, the more data you can store on it. It
became the standard in computing from 1955 to 1975.
The Hard Disk Drive, first introduced by IBM in 1956, weighed over a ton and
was the size of a refrigerator. It had enough storage space to hold a whole mp3 file, 45
seconds of low-resolution video, or 5 million characters of text. The HDD stores data on
one or more rapidly rotating magnetic metal platters, or disks.
The next secondary storage device is floppy disk that was developed at IBM’s
San Jose laboratory in 1967. Originally, floppy disks were uncovered magnetic disks,
hence the “flop.” Later, plastic envelopes were added to protect from dirt and scratches
and varying sizes of the disk emerged.
The Compact Disc was developed in 1982 by both Sony and Phillips. It is the first
highly portable optical storage that had a capacity of 650 – 700 MB. Although the CD was
only 12 centimeters in diameter, when first introduced, it could hold more data than a
personal computer’s hard drive. CD drives read the data stored on discs by shining a
focused laser beam at the surface of the disc.
Zip Drive was invented in 1994. The original Zip Drive was a medium-to-high-
capacity removable floppy disk storage system, introduced by Iomega. It is launched with
capacities of 100 MB, but later versions improved capacity from 250 MB to 750 MB.
Also developed by Sony and Phillips, in addition to a host of other technology
companies, the DVD came to be in 1995. The DVD stores data using the same optical
functions as the CD, with improved storage capabilities. The first DVD had 1.46 GB of
storage, big enough to hold a short movie or 2 CDs. Some manufacturers make dual-
sided, single-layer discs that can hold 9.4 GB of data.
The Secure Digital standard was a joint development by SanDisk, Panasonic,
and Toshiba in 1999. SD cards use flash memory, which stores data in cells made of
floating-gate transistors. The small size and thinness of the cards made them ideal for
digital photography and videography.
In 1999, the M-Systems, an Israeli company, developed the USB Flash Drive. It
is colloquially known as a thumb drive, pen drive, jump drive, disk key, disk on key, flash-
drive, or a memory stick. Similar to SD cards, USB flash drives use flash memory. It
became popular as portable storage devices due to the convenience of plugging them
into a computer’s USB port for data transfer.
Intended to be the successor to the DVD, the Blu-ray optical disc was developed
by a technology industry consortium. While older DVDs were only capable of 480p
resolution, the Blu-ray swooped in with more than double the capacity. The name was
derived from the relatively short wavelength blue laser capable of reading a higher
density of data on the disc as opposed to the red laser used for reading DVDs.
Lastly, the first all web-based data storage system was PersonaLink Services,
launched by AT&T in 1994. Amazon Web Services launched AWS S3 in 2006, in part
starting the trend toward massive cloud data storage. With cloud storage, remote
databases are used to store information, made accessible at any time via internet
access.

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