1832-1952 Charles Babbage and Lady Lovelace proposed the first computer and called it
the Analytical Engine. The basic design included perforated cards containing
operating instructions and a "store" for memory of 1,000 numbers
of up to 50 decimal digits long.
Sir Charles Wheatstone uses paper tape to store data. This technique for
data storage was similar to punch cards, except that the tape was made to
be fed continually through the machine.
Herman Hollerith, was looking for a faster way to conduct the U.S. census.
He used cards to store data information which he fed into a machine that compiled
the results mechanically. Hollerith, with his new machine, founded the Tabulating
Machine Company which later became International Business Machines (IBM).
1952-1970
IBM created the first magnetic tape unit for data storage. Magnetic tape
was much faster than punch cards.
IBM introduced the 305 RAMAC. The RAMAC could store five million characters
(five megabytes) on fifty disks, each 24 inches in diameter. Its recording
head could go directly to any location on a disk surface without reading all
the information in between. This made it possible to use computers for airline
reservations, automated banking, medical diagnosis and space flights.
With the introduction of the first storage unit with removable disks, the
end of the punch card era was hastened. Each disk pack could hold two million
characters (2 megabytes) or as much and 25,000 punched cards.
Reducing the distance between head and disk made it possible to nearly double
recording density-writing information smaller and more packed together.
The floppy disk was invented, which ushered in the era of data portability
and desktop computing.
1971-1980
The introduction of the 3340 Winchester drive set the industry standard for
the next decade. It featured two spindles with a storage capacity of 30 million
characters each.
The first two speed tape unit is used, raising streaming speeds to 160kb
per second.
RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks) was first introduced. RAID employs
two or more drives in combination for fault tolerance and performance. They
are used frequently on servers but are not generally necessary for personal
computers.
Hierarchal Storage Manager (HSM) provides system delivered migration of inactive
data from the disk to a less expensive storage media.
1981-1990
Thin film head technology enabled the introduction of the first commercial
disk drive capable of reading and writing three million characters per second.
It offered 6000 times more storage per square inch that the original RAMAC
disk drive.
The first use of data compaction occurs, thus saving computer users time
and money.
The Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem (DFSMS) is the first full
function, automatic environment for management of storage systems.
The first magneto resistant head enables one gigabyte per square inch recording.
Electronic buffers replaced vacuum columns in tape drives, helping to increase
data rate to three megabytes per second.
1991-Present
The first one-gigabyte 3.5 inch disk drive is invented.
The first one inch high one-gigabyte disk drive which stores 354 million
bits per square inch is made.
Highly parallel processing, multi-level cache, RAID 5, and redundant components
allow outstanding new levels of mainframe storage.
Three billion bits per square inch of magnetic recording is achieved-a new
world record
