Pre-1950s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s

Pre-1950s

Split Wood Tally Sticks
77:

Roman philosopher Pliny describes tally sticks

Numerical information recorded by notches carved in bone and wood

17th century chronicle shows an Inca holding a complex quipu
400:

Tiwanaku pottery depicts quipu storage device

Record keeping system used by the Incas is more than 4,000 years old

Silk Jacquard portrait woven with 24,000 punched cards (1839)
1801:

Punched cards control Jacquard loom

Joseph Jacquard’s punched cards program patterns on a weaving loom

Faraday appeared in many early daguerreotype photographs
1831:

Faraday describes electro-magnetic induction

Michael Faraday discovers two fundamental components of magnetic storage

Poulsen with his wire recorder (c. 1910)
1898:

Poulsen records voice on magnetic wire

Valdemar Poulsen records Emperor Franz Josef of Austria at Paris exhibition

Figure from Taushek’s German Patent (1933)
1932:

Tauschek patents magnetic drum storage

Gustav Tauschek patents cylinder coated with ferromagnetic material

Fritz Pfleumer with his magnetic tape machine (1931)
1935:

Audio recorder uses low-cost magnetic tape

AEG debuts the Magnetophon commercial audio tape recorder in Berlin

Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn in Manchester (1948)
1946:

Williams demonstrates CRT storage

Cathode Ray Tube electrostatic effect enables random access memory

Maurice Wilkes with EDSAC (1949)
1949:

EDSAC computer employs delay-line storage

Mercury-filled delay line provides memory for first stored-program computer

1950s

Notched-Disk Magnetic Memory Device (c.1951)
1951:

Rabinow patents magnetic disk data storage

NBS researcher‘s notched disk memory informs the RAMAC design

UNIVAC I Uniservo tape drive
1951:

Tape unit developed for data storage

Univac introduces magnetic tape media data storage machine

IBM 709 in 1961 TV show
1951:

Storage subsystems emerge

Data processing systems integrate multiple forms of input and output

Western Electric 2N67 Point Contact transistor used in Flyable TRADIC computer (1954)
1953:

Transistors make fast memories

Solid-state devices improve speed, size & reliability of memory systems

Jay Forrester holding core memory plane
1953:

Whirlwind computer debuts core memory

Magnetic cores provide a fast, reliable solution for computer main memory

Ampex team & Emmy award (1957)
1956:

Rotary-head delivers high-quality video

Quadruplex recorders serve as professional video standard for 25 years

Model 350 RAMAC actuator and disk stack
1956:

First commercial hard disk drive shipped

Model 350 RAMAC unit stored the equivalent of 3.75 megabytes of data on 50 large disks

1960s

IBM 1301 disk storage unit
1961:

Flying heads improve HDD capacity & speed

Commercial success of the "slider" in the IBM 1301 established a model for the industry

Bryant Model-2 Series 4000 brochure
1961:

HDD competitors enter the market

Bryant Computer Products introduces units storing up to 205 MB

Sperry Rand UNIVAC 1107 computer (ca. 1962)
1962:

Thin-film memory commercially available

Univac 1107 Thin-Film Memory computer announced

IBM 1311 Disk Storage Drive with disk pack access open
1962:

Disk packs offer portability & security

Interchangable packs spawn Plug Compatible Manufacturers (PCM)

John Potter Three-dimensional selector and memory device patent figure
1962:

Bulk storage systems add low-cost capacity

NCR CRAM was the “first commercially significant Bulk Storage Subsystem”

Diode matrix for DEC PDP-11 floppy disk boot ROM
1965:

Semiconductor Read-Only-Memory arrays

Fixed semiconductor ROMs offer high density and low cost per bit

Inserting an IBM 2315 cartridge into a 2130 drive
1965:

First cartridge HDD and voice coil actuator

IBM 2310 Ramkit pioneered HDD technology in small computer applications

IBM 2314 direct access storage facility (1965)
1966:

Ferrite heads improve HDD speed & density

Recording density advances permit economical massive online storage

Steve Jobs introduces the NeXT workstation (October 1988)
1967:

Magneto-Optical storage demonstrated

Magneto-Optical capacity outstripped magnetic disks in the 1980s

Memorex 630 Disk Drive prototype at trade show
1968:

Memorex Introduces an IBM compatible HDD

Plug-compatible (PCM) disk-drive manufacturers proliferate

1970s

IBM 64-bit bipolar SRAM on predecessor core memory array (1968)
1970:

Semiconductors compete with magnetic cores

Intel DRAM is the first significant semiconductor challenge to core memory

Simon M. Sze co-discoverer of the alterable memory cell at Bell Labs
1971:

Reusable semiconductor ROM introduced

User-erasable, programmable ROMs support microprocessor system design

IBM 3330 data storage subsystem
1971:

Track-following servo quadruples HDD density

IBM 3330 incorporated important hardware and software advances

IBM 23FD “Minnow” flexible disk drive (prototype ca. 1970)
1971:

Floppy disk loads mainframe computer data

Small, removable flexible disks replace punched cards and paper tape

Laser disc (30 cm diameter) vs DVD
1972:

Optical Laser Disc Player is demonstrated

MCA and Philips develop laser technology for distributing consumer movies

IBM 3340 direct access storage facility (1973)
1973:

"Winchester" pioneers key HDD technology

IBM 3340 employs new low-cost, low-load, landing read/write heads

CDC 9762 SMD and two disk packs
1973:

CDC disk drive departs from IBM standards

First significant departure from the IBM HDD technology & media path

Shugart SA400 Minifloppy 5.25 inch disk drive
1976:

Minicomputers stimulate floppy disk sales

5.25 and 3.5-inch drives and media meet personal computer needs

Dal Allan publisher of ENDL newsletter
1977:

Standards Accelerate Disk Drive Integration

Disk drive interfaces either become a standard or fail in the marketplace

TI Advertisement for CCD and Bubble memories (1977)
1977:

Bubbles, CCDs & other forgotten memories

Experimental technologies that have been tried, tested and found wanting

Center for Magnetic Recording Research, U.C. San Diego
1978:

Consortia pursue storage R&D projects

Academic, government & industry research consortia established

Thin film copper coil on the read/write head of the 3370 and 3380 drives
1979:

Thin-film heads introduced for large disks

Photolithography enables a new generation of high-density disk drives

IBM 62PC unit
1979:

Hard disk diameter shrinks to eight inches

Small business computers require smaller physical size HDDs

Joop Sinjou of Philips introduces the music
1979:

Philips demonstrates digital compact disc

CD-ROM emerges for software & video game distribution

1980s

Seagate ST-506 5MB HDD Interior
1980:

Seagate 5.25-inch HDD becomes PC standard

Personal computer boosts HDD output to new levels of production

SyQuest  Q-100 disk cartridge with carbon overcoated layer  (1982)
1982:

Film media increases disk storage density

Carbon coating enhances reliability of magnetic film media

DEC HSC50 Mass Storage Server brochure (1983)
1983:

Networked Storage Systems commercialized

VAXcluster allows sharing across a pool of block-level storage

Ampex DCRsi cassette
1984:

Digital Signal Processing Increases Hardware Areal Density

PRML techniques enhance magnetic media storage capacity

IBM 3480 cartridge compared to a standard tape reel
1984:

Tape cartridge improves ease of use

Magnetoresistive head & new media increase speed and density

The First Raid Group (1984)
1988:

U.C. Berkeley paper catalyses interest in RAID

Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks outperform mainframe drives

PrairieTek 220 2.5” Drive (1988)
1988:

Miniature disk drives enable mobile computing

2.5” and smaller HDDs serve portable needs from notebooks to music players

1990s

MR Read Head with Inductive Write Head
1990:

Magnetoresistive read-head HDD introduced

MR, GMR & TMR heads deliver successive increases in storage density

SanDisk (formerly SunDisk) prototype SSD module for IBM (1991)
1991:

Solid State Drive module demonstrated

Flash non-volatile memory developed for mass storage systems

Kees A. S. Immink “Father of the CD”
1995:

Consumer CD-R drive priced below $1000

Recordable CDs replace magnetic floppy disks for portable storage

HDD shipments reach 105 million units in 1996
1996:

HDD shipments exceed 100 million units/year

One of the world's fastest growing industries through 1996

Quantum Super DTLT 1 tape cartridge
1997:

Tape storage thrives in archival applications

HP, IBM, and Seagate form Linear Tape-Open (LTO) consortium

2000s

Toshiba DVD Player prototype No.1 “Fire Tower” (1996)
2000:

Prototype blue laser disc stores HD video

Blue diode invention earns Japanese physicists Nobel Prize in Physics

Concept for the IBM stripe card magnetic tape on cardboard
2000:

Portable Personal Storage Devices

USB Flash “sticks” displace disks for portable computer data storage

Comparison LMR vs. PMR
2005:

Perpendicular Magnetic Recording arrives

PMR raises disk drive areal density above 100 gigabits per square inch

 Amazon Cloud Drive logo
2006:

Storage in the cloud

Amazon announces remote access to low cost bulk storage

2010s

Helium technology allows much more data to be stored
2013:

Helium Drives Cloud Storage

Helium technology allows much more of your precious data to be stored cheaply in the “cloud”

Disk Areal Density Trend 1957–2010
2014:

HDD areal density reaches 1 terabit/sq. in.

New technologies promise densities up to 10 terabits per square inch

Original graph from 1965 Electronics magazine article
2015:

Moore’s “Law” prevails for 50 years

Projection drove advances in semiconductor and magnetic storage