Silver Back Muzik

Magnetic Tape

In 1952, IBM introduced the IBM 726, a high speed magnetic tape system that would store large amounts of data at relatively low cost. At that point, it was sold with IBM's model 701 computer. It had the capacity to store 2 million digits per tape.

Since then, magnetic tape has continued to be the storage method of choice for inexpensive, mass data storage.

In 2010 IBM and Fujifilm launched a magnetic tape storage device with a capacity of 35TB, more than 40 times the capacity of existing cartridges.

Hard Drives

Hard disks enable large amounts of data to be randomly accessed.

The first hard drive in the form of magnetic disk storage, arrived in 1956 with the IBM 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control ), with 50 magnetic plates that could take 4.4MB of data.

Compact Cassettes

Philips introduced the compact cassette of magnetic tape in 1963, becoming popular in the 1970s until the 1980s. Compact cassettes were used in some computers, such as the Commodore 64 and the Amstrad CPC, storing 700kB to 1 MB of data on each side of tape.

Floppy Disks

The arrival of the IBM 8-inch floppy disk in 1971 had an advantage over the existing hard drives. It became popular as a portable means of program and data storage that you could move between drives. Initially the floppy disk had a storage capacity of 80kB.

Sony sold the first 3 ½" floppy disk drives in 1981 and with the commitment of Hewlett Packard to this format, the 3 ½ "came to dominate the market with capacity now around 1.44MB.

Compact Discs

Music compact discs (CDs) spawned CD-ROMs, launched by Philips and Sony in 1983 with a pre-recorded data capacity of 550 megabytes and companies collaborated to set a norm to allow the information to be accessed from any computer.

USB Flash Drives

The flash drive was introduced in 2000. They are smaller and faster and with a storage capacity nowadays of up to 256 GB, flash drives have replaced CD Roms and Floppy disks.

We have come a long way in terms of data storage; however, it is important to note that many of these forms are still in use today. Magnetic tape is still widely used for mass data storage as it is considered to be the most reliable and trustworthy. This proves that not all forms of technology are doomed to extinction.