BIG DATA 02a: Data Storage - Then to Now
OPENING QUESTIONS:
Have a conversation with your group about the ways computer data has been stored over the last 50 years (or so).
Suggest possible advantages and disadvantages for each
OBJECTIVES: I will learn about the evolution of computer storage and processing power during today's class.
WORDS FOR TODAY:
- Hard Drives: Data is stored magnetically on a spinning platter and stored as a series of 0's and 1's. Operates at millisecond time scales (10-3 second)
- RAM: Random Access Memory. Used for processing information. Operates at nanosecond (10-9 second) time scales.
- ROM: Read Only Memory. Used by manufacturers to store critical processing information at a specific, addressable place. Data on the ROM chip cannot be erased, modified or otherwise changed.
- PROM: Programmable Read-Only Memory. Created empty by manufacturers in bulk and sold to companies. Those companies then "burn in" information on the chip that cannot be changed thereafter.
- EPROM: Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory. Existing data on the chip can be erased with a burst of UV light.
- EEPROM: Electronically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory. Existing data on the chip can be erased using specifically timed pulses of electricity.
- Big Data - a broad term for data sets so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate.
- Moore's Law - a predication made by Gordon Moore in 1965 that computing power will double every 1.5-2 years, it has remained more or less true ever since.
- Original computers (1950's - 1970's): Room Sized computing devices the size of a small room that required strict environmental controls
- Mini-Computers (1970's - present): Scaled-down computers that were the size of a BIG desk. Accessed through "dumb" terminals
- Micro-Computers: (1980 - present) Computers that sit on top of our desks
- SuperComputers (1970's - present). High powered, high speed machines used for weather forecasting and nuclear bomb simulations. Typically used by large universities and governments. They have been and remain VERY expensive.
WORK O' THE DAY:
Let's *quickly* review all that RAM/ROM stuff from yesterday.
By the by, how RAM similar to ROM? How is it different?
Also, how are RAM/ROM similar to data storage? How are they different?
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Back in the day (1960's -ish) computers were the size of small rooms. Transistors (the smallest part of the logic circuits that allowed the processing of 0's and 1's) were made up of vacuum tubes (as we've discussed) that were about the side of your thumb-ish.
My 5-year old, $400 Dell Laptop CPU has over a billion transistors on a chip about the size of 4 postage stamps.
Needless to say, computers have gotten much smaller and much faster.
Let's Investigate Further
By the 1980's just as the personal computer revolution was starting, big companies like insurance companies and banks had scaled down their computers quite a bit, but by today's standards, they were still rather massive. We affectionately referred to those beasties as "Big Iron" (and guess what, LOTS of 'em are still around. I have a friend who still writes Cobol code for Big Iron beasties and has for the last 35 years!)
Then came powerful computers that were about the size of a large desk, those were called "mini-computers" and we worked with them things using remote "terminals" sometimes called "vdt's" or Video Display Terminals or occasionally workstation printers that had no display at all and communicated to the user via text printed on a rolling sheet.... blech...
Anywho.... the personal computer ushered in the age of the "micro-computer", in otherwords a computer that could sit on your desk, and not be the desk.
So... as the computers got smaller and smaller, their ability to store data also increased
Let's do some quick checking and work to edit this data on a google spread sheet:
1985 Single-Sided Single Density Floppy Disk 160 KB 5 1/4" $1 1990 Double-Sided Double Density Floppy Disk 320 KB 5 1/4" $1 1995 Hard Floppy Disk 1.3 MB 3 1/2" $1 2000 Writeable CD-ROM 640 MB CD <$1 2000 IOMega Cartridge 100 MB 3 1/2" $20 2010 Thumb Drives Internal Storage
1960's Magnetic Tap 1970's Magnetic Tape 1980-ish Floppy Disks 1990-ish Magnetic Hard Drive 10 MB 5 1/4" $100? 1990-ish Magnetic Hard Drive 1.0 GB Brick $1000 2000 Magnetic Hard Drive 200 MB 3 1/2" 2010 Magnetic Hard Drive 1.0 GB 3 1/2" 2020 Magnetic Hard Drive 1.0 TB
But wait.... what is on the horizon? Do some research with your team and make a group series of slides on Google Slides to address the following:
- What is the state of the art for existing tech (Magnetic Hard Drive, Solid State Hard Drive)
- Where do designers see that tech going in the next 5 or 10 or 20 years?
- What about real geewhiz/cutting edge tech out there where we are hoping to store data even MORE effectively?