I bought myself a new computer about a year ago. I had the money and decided to splurge a little. I am now sitting here typing on the 15 inch Macbook Pro that I purchased. It has a terabyte hard drive, 8 gigabytes of RAM, a 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7 Processor, which means it’s generally a pretty nice piece of machinery. It cost me what I thought was rather a pretty penny, almost $2500.

In a show of just how storage hungry modern computing has become, I decided that one terabyte wasn’t enough. I wanted an additional terabyte external hard drive. You know; just in case. It measures a grand total of 4 inches x 3 inches. Nice and portable. Imagine my surprise then, when (as a member of the younger generation) I found out that 34 years ago, the modern innovation in computer memory was a ONE gigabyte hard drive. As in that was 1980.

Computer technology has exploded in the last few decades, and storage capacity is one of the best examples. Here’s why: The current rise we see in mobile use can be traced directly to the ability to store large amounts of data in such small drives. If it were not for the developments in data storage, there would be no mobile devices of any kind. They just wouldn’t be practical. So here is a brief history of data storage.

1980: Saw the invention of a modern marvel.  It was a 1 gig. hard drive.  This refrigerator-sized device weighed 550 pounds and cost $40,000.  It was the largest storage device available.

1991: Eleven years later in, IBM introduces its 0663 Corsair. Its eight 3.5 inch platters stored 1 gigabyte of memory. A large improvement from the monstrosity that they had created just over a decade before. (Or should I say a small improvement?)

2002: Another 11 years in the future, and Seagate takes the lead, producing a magnetic recording areal density of 100 gigabytes per square inch.  Seagate also begins testing Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording.  This technological advance allows for data storage capacity to explode.

2004: Just two years later, the storage density was doubled with the introduction of Toshiba’s 0.85 inch drive with a 2 gig capacity.

2014: Here we are. I can buy 1 Terabyte, (or 1024 gigabytes) for about $90 and hold it in one hand.

We clearly see that the ability to store data drive the direction of technology in many ways.  This amazing explosion and the continued expansion of our knowledge can only make us wonder what is next.