Computer memory expansion 1980’s to present.

[GADFRAN]

Thought some of you might be interested in this.

Did it as part of my STS [science, technology & society] research

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Old timers – memories !

New timers – wow was that what it was like back then !

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Right – 5.25” drive / floppy – about 360 KB [kilobyte] – about $300 back then – rough inflation factor of 2.3, so today over $600 – so we treasured them – Kaypros $2000, so today over $4000.- they were “ very “ treasured [just got a new Win 7 HP and Lenovo, each for less than $500 since old Vista crashed – critical for my STS research !]

Top right – 3.5” drive / disk – 1.4 MB

Top left – ZIP drive 100 MB

Left – DVD drive / disks – 4 + GB

Bottom right – external hard drive - 1 + TB

Bottom left – memory cards & sticks [flash drives] – GB’s

Note white arrow [ /\ ] is a “micro” card – need tweezers sometimes to handle it – a couple of years ago I got the biggest 32 GB $100 – just saw them for about $30 now.

Enjoy !

Frank

 

[GADFRAN]

Just how big is a TB = terabyte ?

I came across this ad in Time Magazine a while back and thought you might be interested in order to show “newbies” just how massive our computer memories are now compared to the vintage computer era.

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In the Kaypro era as many of you know we had 64 “ KB “ RAM [yes, that is kilobytes for those new to vintage computers] and 360 KB on a floppy drive.

When I talk to those new to our hobby, I like to use the image of the “ Grand Canyon “ – immense !!! - to try to let them know just how big a TB is compared to the little valleys and streams in our local SE PA region.

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My previous post was to show how the ´physical aspects “ decreased dramatically as did the price, to now a memory card that is less than the size of your small finger fingernail for less than $10 for 4 GB and dropping fast !.

As far as cost goes, a MB of memory in an external hard drive was about $0.20 a few years ago for a 500 GB drive. It evolved to today of 2 TB drive for about less than two [2] cents per MB and dropping fast !

So how far will it go – we all know – down and fast – but the details depend on many factors.

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Before the floods hit Thailand where a lot of ext HD are made, I got at Walmart several 2 TB ext HD at their clearance shelf, to archive a lot of my research for about only $100. Today. after the floods, the price seems to be holding at about $150 for now.

Then the clerk at another big retail outlet, Best Buy, said they have 3 TB and 4 TB on the way ?

So enjoy ! We are all in for quite the ride and in many aspects we consumers seem to have the advantage so far.

Frank

 

[GADFRAN]

It would not let me send this image - hopefully here it is