The above is an image map and you can click on the items for more information
Disks using Laser Technology
Tape Media
Cartridges
Paper Media
Diskettes
Secure Digital
USB Flash Drive
Laser Technology (Disks)
| Name (Nickname) |
Year |
Capacity |
Companies |
| LaserDisc |
1978 |
30-60 min |
|
| Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) |
1995 |
4.7, 8.5, 9.4, 17.08, and 100 (M-disc) GB |
Philips, Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic |
| Blu-Ray Disc |
2006 |
25, 50, 100, 128 GB |
|
| Compact Disc (CD) |
1982 |
700 MB Data, 80 min audio |
|
| Mini DVD |
2004 |
1.4-5.2 GB |
|
| Mini CD |
1990 |
185/210 MB |
|
| MiniDisc |
1992 |
1 GB |
|
| Magneto-Optical Disc (Optical Disc) |
1985 |
650 MB to 9.2 GB |
|
Tape Media
| Name (Nickname) |
Year |
Capacity |
Other Info |
| Compact Cassette (The Cassette) |
1962 |
2 x 660 KB (90 Minutes) |
|
| 9-Track Tape |
1964 |
650 MB to 9.2 GB |
|
| Dectape |
1978 |
256 KB |
Company: DEC |
| Stringy Floppy |
1981 |
4 – 64 KB |
Notable: Continuous Loop Tape |
| ZX Microdrive |
1983 |
85 KB |
Company: Sinclair |
| Digital Audio Tape (“DAT” or “4mm”) |
1987 |
1.3 – 80 GB |
Company: Sony |
| Ditto |
1992 |
125 MB – 10 GB |
Company: Verbatim |
| Data Cartridge |
2003 |
125 MB – 10 GB |
Company: Verbatim |
| LTO Tape |
2002 |
100 GB – 192 TB+ |
Format: LTO-1 to 12 |
Cartridges
| Name (Nickname) |
Year |
Capacity |
Other Info |
| Minicartridge |
1992 |
250MB+ |
Company: Ditto |
| Data Cartridge |
1990 |
150 MB (18-Track) |
Company: 3M |
| Jaz Drive |
1996 |
1 GB and 2 GB |
Company: IOMEGA |
| ROM Cartridge |
1976 |
100, 250 and 750 MB |
Company: Atari, Bandai, Nintendo, SEGA, Sony, Leap Frog, Fisher Price |
| Memory Card |
2000 |
8 MB |
Company: Sony
Product: Playstation 2 |
Time Warner the publisher of Time (magazine) 1984
Diskettes
| Name (Nickname) |
Year |
Capacity |
Other Info |
| 8″ Floppy Disk |
1972 |
79.75 KB, 175 KB, 237 KB, 500 KB |
Notable: The Original Floppy!
Company: IBM |
| 5¼” Floppy Disk (“Minifloppy”) |
1976 |
87.5 KB, 360 KB, 800 KB |
Company: IBM |
| 3½” Floppy Disk (“The Floppy”) |
1982 |
360 KB – 1.44 MB, 2.88 MB |
Company: Consortium of 21 companies |
| 3-Inch Diskette |
1984 |
360 KB |
Company: Amstrad |
| Video Floppy |
1988 |
25 frames |
Company: Sony |
| Zip Disc |
1994 |
100, 250 and 750 MB |
Company: IOMEGA |
| Super Disk |
1997 |
120 and 240 MB |
Company: Imation |
Floppy Drives and Media: 3.5″, 5.25″ and 8″ form factors.
Secure Digital
| Nicknames |
Year |
Capacity |
Company |
| SD |
1999
|
SDSC (SD): 1 MB to 4 GB |
SanDisk, Matsushita and Toshiba |
| Mini-SD |
2006 |
SDHC: >2 GB to 32 GB |
|
| Micro-SD |
2009 |
SDXC: >32 GB to 2 TB+ |
|
| The Secure Digital Ultra Capacity |
2018 |
SDUC: up to 128 TB |
|
Paper Media
| Name (Nickname) |
Year |
Capacity |
Other Info |
| Punched Card |
1930s to 1980s |
72- 96 Bytes |
Company: IBM, Remington Rand |
| Paper Tape |
1846 – 1970 |
~30 KB |
|
| Barcode |
1974 |
<100 Bytes |
|
| QR Code |
1994 |
1.5 KB |
|
Figure 1 US archive containing punched cards from 1959. Each box contains 2,000 punched cards!
Let’s estimate how much data there is on the punched cards in the warehouse of figure 1! Say the boxes are stacked 20 high, 50 wide and 100 long that would give 100,000 boxes contained in the warehouse! Each box has 2,000 cards so there are 200,000,000 or 200 million punched cards. If each card can contain a max of ~100 bytes then there are 20 billion bytes worth of information in this warehouse! 20,000,000,000 Bytes = 20,000,000 KB = 20,000 MB = 20 TB. That is one 20 TB hard disk can store all the information contained on the punched cards in this warehouse!
USB Flash Drive
Year: 2000
Capacity: 8 MB – 1 TB+
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