Just learned the first hard drive was the size of two refrigerators and held 5MB

I was reading through an old issue of Byte magazine from 1980 that my uncle left me, and it had a feature on the IBM 3340. That thing weighed like 200 pounds and stored less data than a single photo on my phone. It really put into perspective how far we've come, even if my 2007 laptop sounds like a jet engine now. Has anyone else stumbled on a stat like that that just blew your mind?

2 comments

2 Comments

stone.evan10h ago

I remember reading that the IBM 3330 from 1971 stored 100MB but it took a whole room and cost like 100 grand.

charlie_fisher458h ago

Right? 100 grand for what a USB stick holds now. @stone.evan is right that it's wild to think about. I still catch myself being amazed that my phone has more storage than a whole room of equipment. Just shows you how far we've come in 50 years. Makes you wonder what they'll laugh at us for paying a fortune for in the future.