History of IBM magnetic disk drives

IBM manufactured magnetic disk storage devices from 1956 to 2003, when it sold its hard disk drive business to Hitachi.[1][2] Both the hard disk drive (HDD) and floppy disk drive (FDD) were invented by IBM and as such IBM's employees were responsible for many of the innovations in these products and their technologies.[3] The basic mechanical arrangement of hard disk drives has not changed since the IBM 1301. Disk drive performance and characteristics are measured by the same standards now as they were in the 1950s. Few products in history have enjoyed such spectacular declines in cost and physical size along with equally dramatic improvements in capacity and performance.

IBM manufactured 8-inch floppy disk drives from 1969 until the mid-1980s, but did not become a significant manufacturer of smaller-sized, 5.25- or 3.5-inch floppy disk drives (the dimension refers to the diameter of the floppy disk, not the size of the drive).[4] IBM always offered its magnetic disk drives for sale but did not offer them with original equipment manufacturer (OEM) terms until 1981.[5] By 1996, IBM had stopped making hard disk drives unique to its systems and was offering all its HDDs as an OEM.[6][7]

IBM uses many terms to describe its various magnetic disk drives, such as direct-access storage device (DASD),[a] disk file and diskette file. Here, the current industry standard terms, hard disk drive (HDD) and floppy disk drive (FDD), are used.

  1. ^ "Hitachi to Buy IBM's Hard Drive Business". PC Magazine. Ziff Davis, LLC. June 5, 2002. Retrieved March 8, 2014 – via Pcmag.com.
  2. ^ "Hitachi Global – News Releases from Headquarters – Jan 6, 2003". Hitachi.com. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
  3. ^ "Five decades of disk drive industry firsts". Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved 2012-10-15.
  4. ^ 1986 Disk/Trend Report – Flexible Disk Drives shows IBM production only of 8-inch FDDs and states, IBM will end internal production of 8-inch drives by 1987.
  5. ^ IBM Enters OEM Market For Winchester Disk Drives, Electronic News, September 14, 1981
  6. ^ 1996 Disk/Trend Report – Rigid Disk Drives, Specifications Section
  7. ^ Francis, Bob (October 17, 1994). "IBM's disk drive family has three new members". InfoWorld. Vol. 16, no. 42. San Mateo, CA: IDG Inc. p. 40. Retrieved 2023-08-04.


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