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1890 to 19401940 to 19501950 plus1955 plus1960 plus1960 plus1965 plus1970 plus1970 plus1970 plus1975 plus1975 plus1975 plus1980 plus1980 plus1980 plus1985 plus1985 plus1985 plus1990 plus1990 plus1990 plus1995 plus1995 plus1995 plus2000 plus2000 plus2000 plus
 
1890
Punchcard J.S. Billings, then director of what was to become the National Library of Medicine, suggests to Herman Hollerith that a mechanical system based on cards be used to tabulate the Census. Hollerith develops a punch card system used with the 1890 Census.
1928
punchcard IBM introduces a rectangular hole punch card that becomes the industry standard.
1955
IBM introduces RAMAC, the first commercial disk drive. It used 50 hefty aluminum disks, stored 5Mb, occupied the space of two refrigerators, and weighed a ton.
1971
The 8" floppy disk appears. It doesn't seem large at the time.
1972
Laserdiscs are introduced.
1976
5 1/4 inch disks The first 5.25" floppy disks are introduced. When this product reaches the PC market it causes an explosive growth in digital information storage.
1978

Philips releases the laserdisc player.

1980

Laserdiscs begin to develop "Laser rot" due to oxidation of the aluminum layer.

1981

3.5 inch floppies Sony introduces the first 3 1/2" floppy drives and diskettes.
1982

Compact Disk-Digital Audio (CD-DA) is introduced to the market jointly by Philips and Sony.

Sony and Philips introduce the first CD player
1983

60mb cassette tape The QIC Standard becomes the first standard in computer history for tape drives.
1984

Philips and Sony introduce CD-ROM technology.

1986

DAT tape Digital Audio Tape (DAT) is introduced.

Philips and Sony join forces to create the CD-Interactive or CD-I format.
1988

CDs outsell vinyl records.vinyl record
1989

Science Citation Index® is published on compact disk.
1990

Kodak announces the development of the Photo CD.CD-R

Philips specifies the characteristics and format of a recordable CD, or CD-R.

Most 2-inch videotape machines become obsolete.
1991

Philips introduces Compact Disc Interactive (CD-I) player for music and video.
1992

The digital Sony Mini-Disc is introduced.

CDs outsell cassette tapes.
1995

Iomega debuts high-capacity drives "Jaz" and "Zip".Iomega Zip disk
1997

HD-ROM is announced by Norsam Technologies.

Rosetta disk is announced.rosetta
DVD discs and players become commercially available.DVD
1998
MP-3 players for downloaded Internet audio appear.
2000
A commercial Digital Video Recording (DVR) system is developed by TiVo, Inc. Reruns of Columbo can now be recorded digitally, saved, and viewed anytime.
2002

DVD players outsell VCRs.
  2004
  Apple's family of personal music players, the iPod, dominates the market with over 5.7 million units sold since their debut in late 2001.
 
  USB Flash Drives flourish. The solid state, inexpensive, pocketable storage media are taking sushiall kinds of shapes and sizes (pens, watches, little fuzzy creatures, and even sushi).

 

 

 

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