Mark Holtz
09-11-06, 12:25 PM
From SF Gate:
Hard-driving valley began 50 years ago
And most other forms of data storage eventually became a distant memoryThe silicon chip gets all the attention. The valley is even named after it. But none of the computer revolution would have been possible without the humble hard drive, which IBM introduced to the world 50 years ago this week.
"It gets second shrift," said Al Hoagland, 79, who worked on the team of IBM engineers who built the magnetic disk drives back when Silicon Valley was still mostly orchards. "The disk drive is more important in revolutionizing society than most people are willing to say. With everything shifting to an Internet-centered world and replacing papers, all the records and anything we care about are stored on magnetic disks." FULL ARTICLE HERE (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/11/BUGH3L23T01.DTL)
Hard-driving valley began 50 years ago
And most other forms of data storage eventually became a distant memoryThe silicon chip gets all the attention. The valley is even named after it. But none of the computer revolution would have been possible without the humble hard drive, which IBM introduced to the world 50 years ago this week.
"It gets second shrift," said Al Hoagland, 79, who worked on the team of IBM engineers who built the magnetic disk drives back when Silicon Valley was still mostly orchards. "The disk drive is more important in revolutionizing society than most people are willing to say. With everything shifting to an Internet-centered world and replacing papers, all the records and anything we care about are stored on magnetic disks." FULL ARTICLE HERE (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/11/BUGH3L23T01.DTL)