Data Storage

THE Created by mozy PAST, PRESENT, TUTURE & Our ability to receive, store, and recall data has changed tremendously over the past hundred years. But this evolution goes back even farther, all the way back to the first thinking man. Take a walk through time and trace the origins and future of data storage. OF DATA STORAGE THE DAWN OF MAN THE DAWN OF MAN CEREBRAL STORAGE The original and most powerful data storage device to date. This synaptic treasure trove of data provided the best storage for generations of oral traditions. CHAUVET-PONT-d'ARC When caveman memories needed to be quickly transferred amongst each other they took to the walls of their abodes to record data. LA STONE TABLET Cave paintings had a critical point of failure in that they were unmovable. Carved tablets provided accessible and portable data storage for the Stone Age man on the go. PAPYRUS/PAPER While stone tablets had their heyday, carrying more than one proved problematic and dangerous for obvious reasons. Papyrus and then later paper became the primary means of data storage. It would be the only acceptable means until the 19th century MANY YEARS LATER PUNCH CARDS In 1725, the punch card was invented and first used as a means of information storage in 1832. In 1890, Herman Hollerith was the first to invent a punch card that could be read by a machine. He later merged with other companies to form IBM. FILING CABINET In 1898 the first filing cabinet was used in an insurance firm, an early form of multi-file compression. MAGNETIC DRUM Invented in 1932 in Austria, the magnetic drum was an early form of computer memory. Electromagnetic pulse was stored by changing the magnetic orientation of ferromagnetic particles on the drum, MAGNETIC TAPE First used in 1951, magnetic tape began to replace the archaic punch cards. Magnetic tape had the capability of storing as many as 10,000 punch cards. This form of backup became the most popular form until the 1980s. HARD DRIVE Introduced in 1956 as data storage for an IBM computer. These devices were not popular in the 1960s and 1970s due to their immense size and price. In the 1990s, hard discs became a viable alternative for tape backups. FLOPPY DISK In 1969 the first floppy disk was a read-only 8in disk that stored 80kb of data. The floppy disk was considered a revolution in data storage. Over time these disks gradually became cheaper and more widely used. CD Created in the 1980s by Philips and Sony, the CD was invented with the intention of replacing the aging floppy disk. THE DVD The next evolution of the CD came in 1995 when the DVD hit the market. DVDS had a storage capacity of 4GB. WORLD WIDE WEB FLASH DRIVE Though the Internet was invented in the 1960s, it was not until the 1990s that the invention of the World Wide Web allowed for online backup services to appear. Now a device was no longer needed and data could be backed up over a network, from a remote location. Hard drives continued to reduce in size and evolved into the very first portable flash storage drive in 1998. This drive has the capability of storing several times more data than the Sin floppy dics. BLUE-RAY The Blu-laser disc first appeared on the market in 2000 and became a promising device for data storage with its storage space of 400 nanometers THE CLOUD Similar to how data is stored on the Internet, cloud storage allows data to be stored on multiple servers, which are generally hosted by third parties. SSDS While first successfully and prolifically used in 1978, the solid state hard drive has become increasingly popular in the past few years. It stores data with electrical charge rather than magnetism. HOLOGRAPHIC LAYERS QUANTUM STORAGE Holographic storage, much like what GE is working on, would allow for data to be encoded holograms, The benefit of this is that the discs derived from this could last 30+ years. Data storage could one day be so small that not even a trained microscope could sniff it out. A single bit of information could be encoded on a quantum on many layers of tiny mechanical system, such as a electron, decipherable by a quantum computer. mozy Sources: IBM I GIZMODO I UNIVERSITY OF KLAGENFURTHISTORY OF STORAGE" I BACKUPHISTORY.COM I 20TH CENTURY 21ST CENTURY THE FUTURE PREHISTORY ANCIENT HISTORY 18TH-19TH CENTURY •- .::**:* 21ST CENTURY THE FUTURE 18TH-19TH CENTURY 20TH CENTURY PREHISTORY ANCIENT HISTORY