The IBM 3380 Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) was a groundbreaking innovation in 1981, breaking the 1 gigabyte capacity barrier with a total storage capacity of 1,260 MB. It eventually reached 2.52 GB when two HDAs were paired, with a three-capacity version offered in 1987. The IBM 3380 revolutionized the data storage industry by providing businesses with unprecedented storage capabilities crucial for the growing data processing demands of the 1980s.
Each HDA cost about $50,000, weighed 64 pounds, and was stored in the largest enclosure ever used for drives, measuring three feet wide, three feet deep, and seven feet high. Customers could store “up to 2.52 billion characters of information,” four times the amount of previous IBM storage devices, but at a significant cost. Different models of the IBM 3380 were available with various feature sets to meet customer needs, selling for between $97,000 and $142,000 each in 1980s dollars. The high cost was justified by the substantial increase in storage capacity it provided, making it crucial for industries requiring large-scale data storage like banking, telecommunications, and scientific research.
By 1991, IBM had compressed 1GB into the Corsair 0663 3.5-inch eight-platter hard drive. In 2018, a 16TB 3.5-inch Seagate hard drive was available off the shelf, equivalent to storage space exceeding 10,000 IBM 3380 HDAs. These advancements in technology further demonstrated the evolution of data storage capacity from the IBM 3380 to more compact and higher-capacity hard drives over the years.
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https://www.techspot.com/trivia/7-how-heavy-first-ever-1-gb-hard-drive/
