In 1956 I didn’t have much interest in computers - in fact I doubt I knew what one was.
So I wouldn’t have known what this was. (You can find this image in a number of places - thanks to Nick Cutajar who sent it to me a while back)
In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first computer with a hard disk drive (HDD). The HDD weighed over a ton and stored 5MB of data. See more details on the history of the RAMAC.
Probably like me you remember floppy disks that stored 360K, and then the first hard drives that stored 10 MB and then a huge 20 MB! Makes you appreciate your 8GB USB stick doesn’t it?
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Yes, quite a few places! I did a quick search on the RAMAC image via my Tin Eye reverse image search Firefox extension and found 56 results.
Floppy disks seem so ancient now!
I must have had many hundreds before new and improved storage devices made our lives easier.
I also remember using Zip drives and disks for a while (expensive). I love the latest portable external drives and USB sticks. (ever cheaper and greater capacities).
And of course, cloud computing has added another dimension.
Yvonne
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