History of hard disk development

History of hard disk development
The hard disk drive has short and fascinating history. In 24 years it evolved from a monstrosity
with fifty two-foot diameter disks holding five MBytes (5,000,000 bytes) of data to today's drives
measuring 3 /12 inches wide and an inch high (and smaller) holding 400 GBytes (400,000,000,000
bytes/characters). Here, then, is the short history of this marvelous device.
Before the disk drive there were drums... In 1950 Engineering Research Associates of
Minneapolis built the first commercial magnetic drum storage unit for the U.S. Navy, the ERA
110. It could store one million bits of data and retrieve a word in 5 thousandths of a second..
In 1956 IBM invented the first computer disk storage system, the 305 RAMAC (Random Access
Method of Accounting and Control). This system could store five MBytes. It had fifty, 24-inch
diameter disks!
By 1961 IBM had invented the first disk drive with air bearing heads and in 1963 they introduced
the removable disk pack drive.
In 1970 the eight inch floppy disk drive was introduced by IBM. My first floppy drives were
made by Shugart who was one of the "dirty dozen" who left IBM to start their own companies. In
1981 two Shugart 8 inch floppy drives with enclosure and power supply cost me about
$350.00. They were for my second computer. My first computer had no drives at all.
In 1973 IBM shipped the model 3340 Winchester sealed hard disk drive, the predecessor of all
current hard disk drives. The 3340 had two spindles each with a capacity of 30 MBytes, and the
term "30/30 Winchester" was thus coined.
In 1980, Seagate Technology introduced the first hard disk drive for microcomputers, the
ST506. It was a full height (twice as high as most current 5 1/4" drives) 5 1/4" drive, with a
stepper motor, and held 5 Mbytes. My first hard disk drive was an ST506. I cannot remember
exactly how much it cost, but it plus its enclosure, etc. was well over a thousand dollars. It took
me three years to fill the drive. Also, in 1980 Phillips introduced the first optical laser drive. In
the early 80's, the first 5 1/4" hard disks with voice coil actuators (more on this later) started
shipping in volume, but stepper motor drives continued in production into the early 1990's. In
1981, Sony shipped the first 3 1/2" floppy drives.
In 1983 Rodime made the first 3.5 inch rigid disk drive. The first CD-ROM drives were shipped in
1984, and "Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia," followed in 1985. The 3 1/2" IDE drive started its
existence as a drive on a plug-in expansion board, or "hard card." The hard card included the drive
on the controller which, in turn, evolved into Integrated Device Electronics (IDE) hard disk drive,
where the controller became incorporated into the printed circuit on the bottom of the hard disk
drive. Quantum made the first hard card in 1985.
but half (1.6") and full height 5 1/4" drives persisted for several years. In 1988 Conner
introduced the first one inch high 3 1/2" hard disk drives. In the same year PrairieTek shipped the
first 2 1/2" hard disks.
In 1997 Seagate introduced the first 7,200 RPM, Ultra ATA hard disk drive for desktop computers
and in February of this year they introduced the first 15,000 RPM hard disk drive, the Cheetah
X15. Milestones for IDE DMA, ATA/33, and ATA/66 drives follow:
1994 DMA, Mode 2 at 16.6 MB/s
1997 Ultra ATA/33 at 33.3 MB/s
1999 Ultra ATA/66 at 66.6 MB/s
6/20/00 IBM triples the capacity of the world's smallest hard disk drive. This drive holds one
gigabyte on a disk which is the size of an American quarter. The world's first gigabyte-capacity
disk drive, the IBM 3380, introduced in 1980, was the size of a refrigerator, weighed 550 pounds
(about 250 kg), and had a price tag of $40,000.