History of IBM Magnetic Disk Drives - IBM's First HDD Versus Its Last HDDs

IBM's First HDD Versus Its Last HDDs

The following table compares IBM's first HDD, the RAMAC 350, with the last three models it manufactured in each of its "Star" series of OEM HDDs. It illustrates HDD's spectacular decline in cost and size along with corresponding improvement in capacity and performance.

Parameter (units) RAMAC 350 Ultrastar 146Z10 Deskstar 180GXP Travelstar 80GN 46-year improvement (maximum)
Announced Sep 1956 Jul 2002 Oct 2002 Nov 2002
Capacity (gigabytes) 0.004 146 180 80 48,000
Dimensions (inches) 60×68×29 4×1×5.75 4×1×5.75 2.75×0.38×3.95
Dimensions (mm) 1500×1700×700 102×25×146 102×25×146 70×9.5×100
Volume (in³) 118,320 23 23 4 29,161
Volume (litres) 1,939 0.4 0.4 0.1
Weight (lbs) 2,140 1.7 1.4 0.2 1,244
Weight (kg) 971 0.8 0.64 0.095
Power (watts) 8100 BTUs/hour (i.e., 2374 watts), up to 5500 kVA depending upon model 16 10.3 1.85 1,283
Power density (megabytes/watt) 0.0016 9,125 17,476 43,243 27,375,856
List price (US$) 57,000 1200 360 420
Price/megabyte (US$) 15,200 0.0082 0.0020 0.0053 7,600,000
Density (megabits/in²) 0.002 26,263 46,300 70,000 35,000,000
Density (kilobits/mm²) 0.003 40,708 71,765 108,500
Volume density (gigabytes/in³) 0.00000003 6 8 20 622,100,131
Volume density (megabytes/mm³) 0.000002 388 478 1,203
Latency (msec) 25 3 4 7 8
Average seek time (msec) 600 5.9 10.2 12 102
Data rate (megabytes/sec) 0.001 103 29.4 43.75 11,719

Read more about this topic:  History Of IBM Magnetic Disk Drives