The History of Hard Disk and Modern Storage Devices To Tape until SSD and NVME!

History of Modernity of Hard Drives, Cards and Memories. Modern storage devices. 

This article was written by JMJG, to help in the study of the hardware classes taught by our company. Here you will find only some teaching materials from the classes, more information and questions with the class instructor himself. Call (11) 2308-4673 and sign up for our in-person course.

    Many old computers, even in 1950, already used data storage media. It is not enough to simply process the information, but we want it to be available long enough to be understood. Certain very important information must be preserved for many years, even perpetuated.

    In the digital world, speed is so fast that everything is nothing more than a fraction of a nanosecond. If we didn't store information, we wouldn't even know it had been processed.

From Tape to Hard Drive

The first electronic storage units (after punched cards) were magnetic tape drives (invented in 1928 in Germany).

In 1951, the UNIVAC was the first computer to use this storage system. It was better than punched cards, as they did not tear or deteriorate easily, and could withstand much more severe use. In addition, data access was much faster. Hundreds of computers adopted magnetic tape as their main storage medium.

However, with the advancement of technology, computers became faster, and the desire for faster data access came up against a technological problem.

    Magnetic tapes store sequential data, so we cannot access the data directly without rewinding the entire reel! Then imagine having to go back to read the data that was there at the beginning... Hmm, wouldn't it be possible to improve this?

    YES, using some device that allows random access to the data! But they hadn't invented it yet....

    It was in 1956 that IBM engineers tried to improve magnetic tape, for which they were inspired by the old LP record. The advantage of the circular format is that information is easily available, so much so that at any time the reading arm can collect the information and return to its original position. Hmm, it's much faster than the tape rewind time!

    Then our first hard disk in the world appears. With a capacity of an incredible 5Mb (mega bytes)! 

    With 50 plated magnetic disks, attached to an electric motor rotating at high speed. Ready, reading heads moved by an electronically controlled mechanism read the exact point where our data is stored.  It was a true masterpiece of mechatronics, all this in 1956!

    This hard drive was a computerized jukebox + a cassette player. The engineers used the best that was available at the time, and they were truly brilliant!

    305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) that was his name. Translated, "Random access method for management and control".

    Worthy and very appropriate. After this invention, hard drives were a desired accessory for every computer. But they were extremely expensive and heavy.

    Many companies have focused on developing technologies for lighter, more compact hard disks with greater storage.

    Nowadays, we have millions of RAMACs within a few centimeters, thanks to advances in electronics. Our HDs (hard disks) are a masterpiece of mechatronics, and must be treated with great care!

    Violent falls or knocks can cause irreversible damage to the HD. The internal platters of current disks are made of glass, to require less friction and spin faster (+ 7200 rpm). With that, any fall can be fatal!

    Once broken, there is no way to recover the informationaction. Another nightmare is when the reading head scratches the internal disk (due to mechanical failure or violent impacts). All of this can ruin our good old hard drive.

    Another problem is the useful life, one day the HD may suffer mechanical wear of its internal parts, causing failures and even irreparable damage.

    The HD is also a memory, which does not lose its data when disconnected from the power, and can be read and written constantly by the user/operating system.

    SSD (Solid State Drive): Solid State Drive. A more modern version of the HD, which has no internal mechanical parts, nor disks spinning at high speed. 

It consists of an electronic board, housing dozens of integrated circuits, and memory chips.

    The SSD is more expensive than a regular HD (but the price will reduce a long of time), and at momment has less storage capacity (if you compare the price with regular HD), but it is faster, more durable, and more reliable than a regular HD! Imagine that the SSD is a giant pen-drive, using FLASH memory chips that do not lose the recorded data, even when disconnected from the electrical power.

    There are still SSHD (Hybrid) models in which the HD+SSD technologies are mixed to manufacture a hard drive that allows you to take advantage of the best of both technologies and maintain a reasonable price with high storage capacity as well as high speed!

    NVME is  new model of Data Storage with High Speed much more than SSD, but only the new motherboards has a Slot to insert NVME. Maybe in the Future NVME will be the best option for Data Storage! 

Old IDE X SATA drives

    IDE/ATA (Integrated Drive Electronics) is a worldwide parallel bus standard (PATA) for connecting data peripherals (HD, CD-ROM) now obsolete. This model of connection we found only in Old Computers, like XT/AT model. In some models of Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad computers also.

    In an IDE connection, the disk controller (chipset) operates on 2 channels per IDE bus.

MASTER: Primary Device on the Channel

SLAVE: Secondary Device on the Channel.

    There should not be 2 Masters or 2 Slaves on the same IDE channel, there will be a conflict!

    To do this, you must correctly select the position of the Jumpers. 

Example of an IDE HD

Standard Jumper Position of an IDE Hard Drive old

    In addition, the connection cable can be 40 or 80-pin. The power connector is the old standard. This configuration is obsolete; currently, all motherboards do not come with an IDE connector, and power supplies that also have connectors like this are rare. To connect an old IDE HD to a new computer, you need to use special adapters.

    The SATA (Serial ATA) standard introduced in 2003 is the new connection method. It is easier, and practically error-free! Just connect the SATA power and data cable, WITHOUT the need to adjust Jumpers!

Today we are on the SATA3 standard, with higher transfer speeds reaching 6 Gbit/sec.

See the photo below to see the mechatronic structure of the HD. A masterpiece of robotics.

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FLASH Memory (E2PROM)

FLASH memories are an evolution of the old ones E2PROM from 1980.  The EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read - Only Memory)  program  is a ROM memory that could be rewritten, in special situations, widely used in motherboard BIOS.

    However, before recording, the EPROM chip had to be exposed to ultraviolet light for a few hours to be erased. Soon after, special equipment could reprogram the chip. At the end, its window was covered again to prevent accidental erasure. 

Like all ROM, EPROM also does not lose its data when the electrical power is turned off.

    

E2PROM (Electrically - Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), is an evolution of EPROM, since this chip does not need to be erased by light, but by an electronic command. In this way, E2PROM does not need to be removed from the circuit, and can be quickly rewritten!

    Much of the BIOS of new motherboards is recorded in Flash memory.

    Pen drives and all other memory cards, flash drives, SSD, use Flash memory chips. With this the data IS NOT erased, even with the device without power, and can be easily reprogrammed.

    All memory cards today are made of Flash memory, faster, more durable, and more resistant than common hard drives. However, they are more expensive to manufacture, have less space (compared to common HD) and have an unfortunate limitation. The number of times they can be rewritten, although quite high, it exists. Once the limit is reached, the chip must be discarded.

    Flash memory still has a lower transfer rate compared to regular HDs. However, it is becoming the future, soon all storage devices will be solid state.

    Some new models of Pendrives comes with USB 3.0 technology and this can help transfer data in high speed!

See you next time

JMJG (Electronic Engineer/Hardware Instructor)