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127 Comments
- DarkLance, on 10/12/2007, -3/+100That would the IBM Mobile Computer, AKA "Plane"
- pbaehr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+65We'll just be laughing, constantly, all the time. Laughing will be the new breathing.
- zweben, on 10/12/2007, -2/+62Probably that 5MB was enough for everybody. Try and fill up 5MB with unformatted text files.
- iching, on 10/12/2007, -11/+66The picture shows them placing it in an IBM laptop computer
.
I know, not really, but I think the that is the size that a laptop would be at that time.
We have come a long way. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+52it would probably take up less space to just print the data
thats 5 million bytes.. thats like a couple steven king novels.. of plain text. - LemurHorde, on 10/12/2007, -0/+44I was looking at the article in Wiki and I found this interesting tidbit...
"the entire RAMAC unit weighed over a ton and had to be moved around with forklifts and delivered via large cargo airplanes. According to Munce, while the storage capacity of the drive could have been increased above five megabytes, the marketing department at IBM was against a larger capacity drive because they didn't know how to sell a product with more storage."
Is that because of the size or because they thought 5 MB should be enough for anybody? - drwtsn32, on 10/12/2007, -0/+44What sucks is that it was only 4.7MB after formatting. What a ripoff!
- bgreen00, on 10/12/2007, -1/+43I hear that's plug and play compatible with Vista
- daveddd, on 10/12/2007, -3/+39It's really shows my age, but I remember those!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+39Without the lame watermark:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/technology_enl_1158142314/html/1.stm - lmarburg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+33what can you store with 5 MB these days...
50 years from now we will look back at a terabyte and laugh - oyourmom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+32We'll laugh at a terabyte on a Flash Drive.
- raisinbrainMMM, on 10/12/2007, -4/+35"the marketing department at IBM was against a larger capacity drive because they didn't know how to sell a product with more storage."
They should have asked Sony! Zing! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29What they dont tell you, is those are really reallly tiny people.
- NanoStuff, on 10/12/2007, -4/+30"we will laugh at human beings"
Well done, you ruined it. - dotuplink, on 10/12/2007, -2/+27I got a bunch of those all compressed into one and hanging over my neck. Soon kids in the future will have 100 Tb just hanging over their necks too.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+27Awesome. They had an Xbox prototype back in the 50's!
- zooradley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22we'll laugh at flash drives
- Tenlow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23So do I. I mean I just looked at the picture. How could I forget it so soon?
- xOCxKILLSx, on 10/12/2007, -4/+24Wouldn't it just be easier to write down all your data in a note book . come on 5 megs is like 300 pages of data.
www.setecinvestigations.com/resources/techhints/Pages_per_Gigabyte.pdf
edit : PowerCow beat me to it.... - DarkLance, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22But think of all the porn you can put on there! Or ill-gotten media!
- niteskunk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20Dugg! I love retro electronics.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22Today, that would hold over 160 TB, according to Moores law
- Drull, on 10/12/2007, -1/+204 times at least.
- D4RKfantasy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18A tera-byte now is pretty much nothing. I could fill it up pretty quick with 1080i Tv shows.
Japan has a peta-byte storage system already, next is exa-bytes, yotta-bytes, etc. - Vokas, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20Yeah that watermark was really getting in my way of enjoying the pic, thanks!
- clackerd, on 10/12/2007, -5/+21yotta bites: back up or do not back up, there is no storing to gmail
- Luigi239, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16My god, that's awesome.
We take it for granted that we now have 160gb dirves that weigh practically nothing. But then agian, ten years from now, a terabyte will sound like nothing. - NathanFerris, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Well without the trusty 5 meg hard drive where would we be? Without that we wouldn't of got to the stage we're at!
- Curufir, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17"All anyone will ever need is a quote that's actually real"
- ForlornHope, on 10/12/2007, -5/+195 meg ought to be enough for anybody.
- Porkchoppa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13lol, not exactly portable. I wonder how fast it was and how much it cost back then.
http://www.cedmagic.com/history/ibm-305-ramac.html
Did some research and it looks like it could be used for a $35,000 annual fee to IBM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_305
Timing
All timing signals for the 305 were derived from a factory recorded Clock Track on the drum. The clock track contained 816 pulses 12 µs apart with a 208 µs gap for sync.
Reading or writing a character took 96 µs.
The 305's typical instruction took three revolutions of the drum (30ms): one (I phase) to fetch the instruction, one (R phase) to read the source operand and copy it to the core buffer, and one (W phase) to write the destination operand from the core buffer. If the P field (Program exit code) was not blank, then two (D phase and P phase) additional revolutions of the drum (20ms) were added to the execution time to allow relays to be picked. The Improved Processing Speed option could be installed that allowed the three instruction phases (IRW) to immediately follow each other instead of waiting for the next revolution to start; with this option and well optimized code and operand placement a typical instruction could execute in as little as one revolution of the drum (10ms).
Certain instructions though took far longer than the typical 30ms to 50ms. For example, multiply took six to nineteen revolutions of the drum (60ms to 190ms) and divide (an option) took ten to thirty seven revolutions of the drum (100ms to 370ms). Input/Output instructions could interlock the processor for as many revolutions of the drum as needed by the hardware. - zacuke, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14I'm laughing right now.
- cbbspike, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Yes, it would take less physical space to print out those 5MB, but you would not be able to process the printed data. Plus a 5MB piece of data on discs instead of magnetic tape or punched cards would process much faster.
- coldphoenix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11@Darkcyde
Who fills up hdd's with just programs? He's saying with the advancements in technology, a terabyte won't even seem like that much in 10 years, and that statement is already becoming true. Its not that we will be using programs that take up more space, simply be technologically advancing simply because we can. Trust me, the consumer will find a way to fill all that space too. I myself could always use more room for storing all my movies, music, and pictures--programs are a very small part of a hdd. - Tenlow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Well if you had a drive array that big today, I'm sure it would store at least that.
- firepowered, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10and 50 Years later, they will be laughing at us for using HDD.
- cipher64, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10and if somebody forgot to tie the ropes around it?
- ahcomeon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10What's with the "Let us start appreciating" BS? The only one allowed to appreciate my 4GB jump drive is me!
- eskay, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11I thought Moore's law technically only applied to speed, not storage :P
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1410 years from now a terabyte will definately still be 'something', maybe todays gigabyte, but untill a programming language becomes that unopotomized and innefficiant, a one terabyte program is useless
not to mention the time and resources to make a program that big, no matter what time period - clackerd, on 10/12/2007, -7/+16seriously, this reminds me of when the first CD's came out. they were much larger, black, and instead of a laser they used a needle. the first discmans had to be worn on your back, and don't even think about jogging while listening to your music.
- ziki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8no i can't.
- ChileanGoD, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10@dotuplink ....And it will still not be enough.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9for my holographic display
- EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8That truly was a staggering amount for the time. In 1983 (27 years later) I got the 360k floppy drive for my Atari 800 and I was the envy of all my geek friends. Hard drives on PCs were still virtually unheard of.
- Larke2000, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8i wish i could digg clackerd's comment twice. 1 for the funny, and 1 for the star wars reference. :)
- counterplex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Definitely an interesting comparison. Considering the fact that the rate of progress is increasing exponentiallly, I can't imagine where we'd be in 5 years much less in 55 years!
On another note, does the PAA imply PanAm? If so, there's another time capsule :) - mutatron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Well, at least I'm younger than someone here. I was a mere infant at the time that drive was launched.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6umm a terabyte will be nothing in 10 years. think of all the space uncompressed HD 1080i video takes up.
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