1956 IBM 305 5MB Hard Disk Drive

[DynamoNED]

I saw this on Crucial Memory's Facebook page, and thought all of you'd get a kick out of it.

That's a 1956 IBM 305 RAMAC Hard Disk Drive with 5 MB of storage - weighed in at over 1 ton. Annual lease cost was about $35,000.

Just a week ago, I got a 16GB flash drive from NewEgg for $25 plus shipping. That's over 3,000 times the storage for 1/1,400th the price and at 1/16,000th the weight (assuming a flash drive weighs 2 ounces).

If that's the progress we've made in 55 years, I can't wait to see what's out in another 55 years!

[AmEv]

4 picobyte completely wireless drives. Like Smart cards, their power is from the radio waves.

[artoodeeto]

Virtual Hard Drives. They'll store an infinite amount of data without actually existing.

[Munty]

Further proof that time-travel is impossible... Give me a Delorean and a flash drive and I'd be a richman lol

[x88x]

Just a week ago, I got a 16GB flash drive from NewEgg for $25 plus shipping. That's over 3,000 times the storage for 1/1,400th the price and at 1/16,000th the weight (assuming a flash drive weighs 2 ounces).

I imagine the shipping was a lot cheaper than a private jet too.

4 picobyte completely wireless drives. Like Smart cards, their power is from the radio waves.

Nah, they'll just be 4 petabyte (I assume that's what you meant...pico == 1E-12, peta == 1E15) smartcards.

[Cale_Hagan]

that's just amazing... dont forget that in 1985 intel released mind blowing speeds of 12 mhz on the 386. those were top dollar. and now we have 6 cores @ 3.33ghz..... wow time flys

[AmEv]

Well, the IBM AT flies @ 4.77 MHz.


And yes, I meant Peta.

I knew it had something to do with P.


Uhm.....

[rgathright]

The Navy was using large array's of similar IBM hard drives during Vietnam to store reconnaissance photography on their carriers.

Imagine what they are using today!

[LiTHiUM0XiD3]

PS3s running a custom firmware alot of them...

[x88x]

PS3s running a custom firmware alot of them...

Now that's just silly. The Navy wouldn't do that.. No, no, no...that's the Air Force..

And actually, yeah, it's an interestingly similar purpose. Not just storing the recon photos, but still.
http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/Air-For...111297414.html