Posted on 06/26/2024 1:20:17 PM PDT by Red Badger
The IBM 3380 Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) marked the pinnacle of 14-inch disks in 1981. Utilizing nine platters, it broke the 1 gigabyte barrier with a total capacity of 1,260 MB and ultimately reached 2.52 GB when two HDAs were paired. A three-capacity version was offered in 1987.
The IBM 3380 was revolutionary not just for its storage capacity but also for its impact on the data storage industry. It represented a significant leap in technology, providing businesses with unprecedented storage capabilities that were essential for the growing demands of data processing in the 1980s.
One HDA (as pictured) cost approximately $50,000, weighed 64 pounds, and the set was stored in the largest cabinet ever used for disks, measuring one meter wide, one meter deep, and two meters high. The IBM 3380 offered customers the ability to store "up to 2.52 billion characters of information," which was four times the amount previous IBM storage devices were capable of. This came at a hefty cost.
The IBM 3380 was available in different models with various feature sets depending on customer requirements (e.g., control functions and fixed head technology). Based on those requirements, IBM 3380 storage devices were sold for $97,000 to $142,000 each, in 1980s dollars. The high cost of the IBM drive was justified by the substantial increase in storage capacity it provided. It played a crucial role in industries that required large-scale data storage, such as banking, telecommunications, and scientific research.
By 1991, IBM had squeezed 1 GB into the 3.5-inch, eight-platter 0663 Corsair HDD, and by 2018, you could purchase a 16 TB 3.5-inch Seagate hard drive off the shelf, which equates to the storage space of more than 10,000 IBM 3380 HDAs.
Tech History Ping!................
“Gentlemen, start your platters!”
To me, there were two significant improvements to the original IBM PC architecture. Number one was the internal hard drive. USB = #2.
My first true hard drive was 15 meg — 90 lbs
Winchester — took 3 minutes to stabilize before heads could access platters.
Hell, a DemocRAT congress-critter can store zero bytes of information on a five-hundred page piece of legislation.
And a liberal kollege pro-phessor can exceed that by a factor of ten in his/her/its book(s).
USB was a real game changer.
USB forever! Or something like it.
Did you need to park the drive heads as part of the shut down?
I remember the removable 10MB RL02 disk packs from DEC, handled a LOT of those in the 80's.
The capability and cost have both improved dramatically.
The problem: when it fails you are back to zero.
For example, the CDK software hack shut down the systems of half the car dealers in the country last week. It is still going, and will continue until at least the end of June.
They are doing sales, leasing, service, repairs all by hand.
The only parking done in the early 80s that didn’t involve the tongue.
I remember the first small one gig hard drive that fit in a memory card slot. Some $300 — for digital cameras.
Looks like it’s about the size of a Mazda Wankel engine.
Looks like you need to check your calibers.
Now there's this:
San Disk Extreme - 256 GB for $27
That’s why you backs ups and redundancy.
I started out my IT career after the Navy working on 14-inch platters. Then at Maxtor and later Seagate with 5-1/4-inch full-size Winchester drives—for years I had a 5MB drive, may still have it in a box somewhere. Now I’ve got multi-terabyte USB flash drives!
-PJ
They should add the cost of computer memory to the other FR article about how living in America is so much cheaper under Joe Biden.
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