History of Memory Storage Devices

Actually, some advice. Why do such a dry subject for your final year project? You don't do history do you? Do you have time to change or are you too far in?

The history of data storage is so......done. I'm sure there are a million similar projects past and present and they're just as boring as each other.

Do something original, something cutting edge. They don't teach you new languages and theory so you can sit back and turn a 1st year grade essay into a third year project.

Now, not to give criticism without advice.

Do the current trend and future of data storage.

Storage Area Networks. What are they, who uses them, why.
Network attached Storage. What is it, who uses it, why.
Content Addressable storage. WHAT! Wassat? (archiving, read about it! - why do people archive? Did you read about Merill Lynch being fined millions for not being able to retrieve some emails?)
Grid storage
What cool things can you do with all of the above

The future - Storage virtualisation, why?

Show them you can think of the future, what people are doing now. Not [put's on Boring Norman's voice]The History of Storage zzzzzz.

If you are going to carry on as you are look up the IBM Millipede project, talk about solid state a bit more too.
 
My vote goes for Hard Drives.

NNothing has come close to matching it for sheer capacity and reliability. It has come a long way since IBM released the first 5mb unit in 1956.
 
Vanilla said:
Actually, some advice. Why do such a dry subject for your final year project? You don't do history do you? Do you have time to change or are you too far in?

The history of data storage is so......done. I'm sure there are a million similar projects past and present and they're just as boring as each other.

Do something original, something cutting edge. They don't teach you new languages and theory so you can sit back and turn a 1st year grade essay into a third year project.

Now, not to give criticism without advice.

Do the current trend and future of data storage.

Storage Area Networks. What are they, who uses them, why.
Network attached Storage. What is it, who uses it, why.
Content Addressable storage. WHAT! Wassat? (archiving, read about it! - why do people archive? Did you read about Merill Lynch being fined millions for not being able to retrieve some emails?)
Grid storage
What cool things can you do with all of the above

The future - Storage virtualisation, why?

Show them you can think of the future, what people are doing now. Not [put's on Boring Norman's voice]The History of Storage zzzzzz.

If you are going to carry on as you are look up the IBM Millipede project, talk about solid state a bit more too.
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Unfortunately it is too late to change the title... although thanks a million for the suggestions. I was going to think about the future, but didn't know what to talk about - you have mentioned some great points :)
 
How about some memory types which really were significant breakthroughs? (Floppy disk? Hard drive? Pah!).

I would suggest delay line memory as one of the earlies useful memory types (as used in machines such as EDSAC). Very cool. Basically it is a long bent round tube of mercury down which you send oscillations representing the data you wich to store. The waves flow down the tube round back to the start (as the tube is bent back on itself) where you then have to reamplify them. If you want to read from it, you have to wait until the needed bits of data pass by.

Another one to look at would be ferrite core memory. It consists of a sheet of small ferrite rings which have been threaded with wires so that when current is passed down a set of wires which intersect at a given ring, you can magnetize the ring. Very reliable memory - still used in the space shuttle today.

Bit more interesting than the ever growing capacity of HDDs.

EDIT: Sorry, the shuttles were upgraded in 1990.
 
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Not checked the link but I would go for the HDD since it has been going strong for as long as I can remember. My other choice would also be solid state memory such as flash. I recently bought a 2GB usb stick for a tenner! There are also 32GB Solid State HDDs around made by Samsung i think. Solid State is more reliable and much faster than standard HDDs.
 
Did anybody else actually read the list in the OP?

From that list I'd have to say papyrus/paper without any doubt. It's been the most important means of data storage through almost the entirety of human civilisation and even now we've been unable to effectively render it obsolete.
 
Without question SR or D-Type latch.

A fundamental component in digital design, impossible to build most synchronous digital circuits without and a fundamental of the digital computer. It is a basic part of SRAM, representing 1 bit of volatile storage.

From the very beginnings of the digital computer to the Core 2, nothing else compares to it in significance. It's possible to build a "computer" without DRAM, magnetic or optical storage but not this...
 
alexthecheese said:
It made communication to the masses possible, it was hugely important.
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Wasnt the OP asking for storage though? You're right when it comes to communication but for storage, paper has to take the crown imo.
 
kaiowas said:
From that list I'd have to say papyrus/paper without any doubt. It's been the most important means of data storage through almost the entirety of human civilisation and even now we've been unable to effectively render it obsolete.
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Agree here.

Paper also had a huge effect on society due to its low cost. For the first time the storage and dissemination of information was opened up to society outside of the elite.
 
kaiowas said:
From that list I'd have to say papyrus/paper without any doubt. It's been the most important means of data storage through almost the entirety of human civilisation and even now we've been unable to effectively render it obsolete.
Click to expand...
 
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