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The hard disk drive has short and fascinating history. In 24 years it evolved from a monstrosity
with fifty two-foot diameter disks holding five MBytes (5,000,000 bytes) of data to today's
drives measuring 3 /12 inches wide and an inch high (and smaller) holding 400 GBytes
(400,000,000,000 bytes/characters). Here, then, is the short history of this marvelous device.
Before the disk drive there were drums... In 1950 Engineering Research Associates of
Minneapolis built the first commercial magnetic drum storage unit for the U.S. Navy, the ERA
110. It could store one million bits of data and retrieve a word in 5 thousandths of a second.
In 1956 IBM invented the first computer disk storage system, the
305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and
Control). This system could store five MBytes. It had fifty, 24-
inch diameter disks!
By 1961 IBM had invented the first disk drive with air bearing
heads and in 1963 they introduced the removable disk pack drive.
In 1970 the eight inch floppy disk drive was introduced by IBM. My first floppy drives were
made by Shugart who was one of the "dirty dozen" who left IBM to start their own companies.
In 1981 two Shugart 8 inch floppy drives with enclosure and power supply cost me about
$350.00. They were for my second computer. My first computer had no drives at all.
In 1973 IBM shipped the model 3340 Winchester sealed hard disk drive, the predecessor of all
current hard disk drives. The 3340 had two spindles each with a capacity of 30 MBytes, and the
term "30/30 Winchester" was thus coined.
In 1983 Rodime made the first 3.5 inch rigid disk drive. The first CD-ROM drives were shipped
in 1984, and "Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia," followed in 1985. The 3 1/2" IDE drive
started its existence as a drive on a plug-in expansion board, or "hard card." The hard card
included the drive on the controller which, in turn, evolved into Integrated Device Electronics
(IDE) hard disk drive, where the controller became incorporated into the printed circuit on the
bottom of the hard disk drive. Quantum made the first hard card in 1985.
In 1986 the first 3 /12" hard disks with voice coil actuators were introduced by Conner in
volume, but half (1.6") and full height 5 1/4" drives persisted for several years. In 1988 Conner
introduced the first one inch high 3 1/2" hard disk drives. In the same year PrairieTek shipped
the first 2 1/2" hard disks.
6/20/00 IBM triples the capacity of the world's smallest hard disk drive. This
drive holds one gigabyte on a disk which is the size of an American quarter. The
world's first gigabyte-capacity disk drive, the IBM 3380, introduced in 1980, was
the size of a refrigerator, weighed 550 pounds (about 250 kg), and had a price tag
of $40,000.
HARD DISK DRIVE GUIDE
The purpose of this article is to provide just the right balance of technical detail to convey a good
insight into the innards of a hard disk drive and how if basically works without burdening the
reader with excessive technical detail.
HEADS. The heads (or Winchester sliders) are spring-loaded airfoils and actually fly like an
airplane above (or below) the surface of the platters at a distance measured in micro-inches. The
air stream though which a head "fly" is caused by the motion of the platters spinning through the
air inside the HDA. The platters drag the air along by friction. The higher pressure air between
the heads and the platters is known as air bearing. The effect is somewhat like a puck in an air
hockey game. The bottom of a head is called an air bearing surface. This sort of mechanism
was introduced in the Winchester hard disk drive invented by IBM in 1973.
The heads are bonded to a metal suspension (or head arm), which
is a small arm that holds the head in position above or beneath a
disk. A head and suspension is called a head-gimbal assembly or
HGA. The HGA's are stacked together Into a head-stack
assembly, which is propelled across the disk surface by the
actuator. The actuator on most recent hard disks employs a voice
coil mechanism. It functions much like the voice coil in a loud
speaker, thus its name. It consists of a curved magnet (or
magnets--very strong ones) and a spring-loaded coil of fine wire
which is attached to the read/write heads by head arms. The head
arms are attached to, and pivot about an actuator shaft. When the drive electronics apply an
electric current to the actuator coil, it interacts with the magnet and swings against the actuator
spring. The heads rotate around the actuator shaft in the opposite direction of the coil movement,
inward and outward from the center to the edges of the platters. If there is a power outage (e.g.,
you turn-off the computer) the spring, which counterbalances the electromagnetic force between
the coil and magnet, takes over and automatically parks (lands them on skids or nanosliders--like
pontoons on a sea plane) and locks the heads on a part of the platters called a landing zone (like
an airport runway only curved) before they can crash (like an airplane) on, and mar that part of
the surface of the platters where data is stored. When power is restored, the platters speed-up
and the heads take off (like a tethered model airplane, except the ground moves--and those on the
bottoms of the platters can fly up-side-down) and start flying again--an extraordinary
mechanism...
One no longer has to park a hard disk before moving the computer as was the case in times of old
when actuators were moved by devices known as stepper motors. However, if the power jitters
repeatedly or the drive is subjected whack from a frustrated user, a crash can occur.
A Gray Code is a binary code in which successive numbers differ by only a single bit. 000
Although many Gray Codes are possible, one specific Gray Code is considered the Gray
001
Code because of its efficiency in computation. This efficiency is why it is used for the servo
pattern instead of other binary codes. A three-bit Gray Code is shown to the right. 011
010
Although there are other schemes, the Gray Code is written in a wedge at the start of each
110
sector (an embedded servo pattern) on most drives. There are a fixed number of servo
sectors per track and the sectors are adjacent to one another. This pattern is permanent and 111
cannot be changed by writing normal data to the drive. It also cannot be changed by low- 101
level formatting (see below) the drive, as some may think. If it is changed, the drive has had
100
it--kaput!
The electronics use feedback from the heads, which read the Gray code pattern, to very
accurately position, and constantly correct the radial position of the appropriate head over the
desired track, at the beginning of each sector, to compensate for variations in platter geometry,
caused by mechanical stress and thermo expansion and contraction. Altogether, the head
positioning components form what is know as closed-loop servo system--a marvelous (and,
perhaps, dangerous) thing to watch operate in a drive which has been open.
1956: IBM ships the first hard drive in the RAMAC 305 system. The drive holds 5MB of data at
$10,000 a megabyte. The system is as big as two refrigerators and uses 50 24-inch platters. (For
the full story and interviews with key players, read "The Hard Drive Turns 50.")
1961: IBM invents heads for disk drives that "fly" on a cushion of air or on "air bearings."
1963: IBM comes up with the first removable hard drive, the 1311, which has six 14-inch
platters and holds 2.6MB.
1966: IBM introduces the first drive using a wound-coil ferrite recording head.
1970: General Digital Corporation (renamed Western Digital in 1971) is founded in California.
1973: IBM announces the 3340, the first modern "Winchester" hard drive, which has a sealed
assembly, lubricated spindles, and low-mass heads.
1978: First RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks) technology patent is filed. (Read
"How to Buy a Hard Drive: Key Features" for a description of this technology.)
1979: IBM's 62 PC, "Piccolo," uses six 8-inch platters to store 64MB.
1979: Seagate introduces the ST-506 drive and interface, which is then used in all early
microcomputer implementations.
1980: IBM introduces the first gigabyte hard drive. It is the size of a refrigerator, weighs about
550 pounds, and costs $40,000.
1981: Shugart Associates joins NCR to develop an intelligent disk drive interface called the
Shugart Associates Systems Interface (SASI), a predecessor to SCSI (Small Computer System
Interface).
1982: Western Digital announces the first single-chip Winchester hard drive controller
(WD1010).
1983: Rodime releases the first 3.5-inch hard drive; the RO352 includes two platters and stores
10MB.
1984: Western Digital makes the first Winchester hard drive controller card for the IBM PC/AT-
-and sets an industry standard.
1985: Control Data, Compaq Computer, and Western Digital collaborate to develop the 40-pin
IDE interface. IDE stands for Intelligent Drive Electronics, more commonly known as Integrated
Drive Electronics.
1985: Imprimis integrates the first hard drive controller into a drive.
1985: Quantum introduces the Plus Hardcard, which allows the addition of a hard drive without
an available bay or a separate controller card.
1985: Western Digital produces the first ESDI (Enhanced Small Device Interface) controller
board, which allows larger capacity and faster hard drives to be used in PCs.
1986: The official SCSI spec is released; Apple Computer's Mac Plus is one of the first
computers to use it.
1988: Prairie Tek releases the 220, the first 2.5-inch hard drive designed for the burgeoning
notebook computer market; it uses two platters to store 20MB.
1988: Connor introduces the first 1-inch-high 3.5-inch hard drive, which is still the common
form factor. Before this, hard drives were either full height or half-height.
1988: Western Digital buys the disk-drive assets of Tandon Corporation with an eye to
manufacturing IDE drives.
1990: Western Digital introduces its first 3.5-inch Caviar IDE hard drive.
1991: IBM introduces the 0663 Corsair, the first disk drive with thin film magnetoresistive (MR)
heads. It has eight 3.5-inch platters and stores 1GB. (The MR head was first introduced on an
IBM tape drive in 1984.)
1991: Integral Peripherals' 1820 Mustang uses one 1.8-inch platter to store 21MB.
1992: Seagate comes out with the first shock-sensing 2.5-inch hard drive.
1992: Seagate is first to market with a 7200-revolutions-per-minute hard drive, the 2.1GB
Barracuda.
1992: Hewlett-Packard's C3013A Kitty Hawk drive uses two 1.3-inch platters to store 2.1GB.
1994: Western Digital develops Enhanced IDE, an improved hard drive interface that breaks the
528MB-throughput barrier. EIDE also allows for attachment of optical and tape drives.
1996: Seagate introduces its Cheetah family, the first 10,000-rpm hard drives.
1997: IBM introduces the first drive using giant magneto resistive (GMR) heads, the 16.8GB
Deskstar 16GP Titan, which stores 16.8GB on five 3.5-inch platters.
1998: IBM announces its Microdrive, the smallest hard drive to date. It fits 340MB on a single
1-inch platter.
2000: Maxtor buys competitor Quantum's hard drive business. At the time, Quantum is the
number-two drive maker, behind Seagate; this acquisition makes Maxtor the world's largest hard
drive manufacturer.
2000: Seagate produces the first 15,000-rpm hard drive, the Cheetah X15.
2002: Seagate scores another first with the Barracuda ATA V Serial ATA hard drive.
2002: Among its many 2002 technology accomplishments, Seagate successfully demos Heat-
Assisted Magnetic Recording. HAMR records magnetically using laser-thermal assistance and
ultimately aims to increase areal density by more than 100 times over 2002 levels.
2003: IBM sells its Data Storage Division to Hitachi, thus ending its involvement in developing
and marketing disk drive technology.
2003: Western Digital introduces the first 10,000-rpm SATA hard drive, the 37GB Raptor,
which is designed for the enterprise, but which gamers quickly learn is a hot desktop performer
in dual-drive RAID setups.
2004: The first 0.85-inch hard drive, Toshiba's MK2001MTN, debuts. It stores 2GB on a single
platter.
2005: Toshiba introduces its MK4007 GAL, which stores 40GB on one 1.8-inch platter, fielding
the first hard drive using perpendicular magnetic recording.
2006: Seagate completes the acquisition of Maxtor, further narrowing the field of hard drive
manufacturers.
2006: Seagate's Momentus 5400.3 notebook hard drive is the first 2.5-inch model to use
perpendicular magnetic recording, which boosts its capacity up to 160GB.
2006: Seagate releases the Barracuda 7200.10, at 750GB the largest hard drive to date.
2006: Cornice and Seagate each announce a 1-inch hard drive that holds 12GB. The drives are
slated to ship in the third quarter of 2006.