BRIEF HISTORY OF STORAGE DEVICES

Formats of Data (Text-based to multimedia)

·         From Physical Text-based to Multimedia (voice, picture, video)

·         Data was stored on paper in filing cabinets

·         Data is now stored virtually on networks, internet or storage devices

Volumes to be Stored

·         Storage capacity was limited

·         Data was confined to immobile devices that took up lots of physical space (filing cabinets)

·         Storage devices are now small, mobile and can store large amounts of data

Compression Utilities

·         Ability to compress large amounts of data into a small form

·         This was not possible in the past

·         Now we have lossless, retains quality, reduces size (7zip, WinRAR, PNG)

·         And lossy compression utilities, reduces size significantly, some quality loss (MP3, JPG).

Access Method

·         Changed from sequential to direct/random access

·         Speeding up the process of data storage and retrieval

Access Methods

·         Serial Access – Data is accessed in the order it is stored

·         Sequential – Data is access in a specified order

·         Random/Direct Access – Data can be accessed directly provided its file location is known skipping unwanted data

·         Parallel Access – Multiple pieces of data accessed/written simultaneously

Speed

·         Speed of retrieval and storage have improved significantly

·         Data can be quickly stored and accessed immediately on request