Information Storage Timeline
| Prehistory | Pictoglyphs, knotted hair, notched sticks, cave paintings |
| 4000 BC- 3000 BC |
Sumerian writing: Cuneiform tablets |
| 3000 BC | Babylonian pebble abacus |
| 2900 BC | Egyptian hieroglyphics |
| 1300 BC | Chinese oracle bone writing |
| 500 BC | Papyrus roll: Egypt Bead & wire abacus: Egypt |
| 330 BC | Camera Obscura: Aristotle (but no film) |
| 220 BC | Chinese seal writing |
| 100 AD | Roman codex: first book |
| 105 AD | Wood block printing and paper: China |
| 1041- 1048 AD |
Movable clay type: China, Pi Sheng |
| 1300s | Carillon: mechanical music reproduction with cylinder & pins |
| 1364 | Calculating clock: Giovanni di Dondi |
| 1403 | Bronze type: Korea |
| 1448-55 | Gutenberg press and metal type |
| 1622 | Slide rule: William Oughtred |
| 1623 | Adding machine: Wilhelm Schickard |
| 1641 | Numerical calculator: B. Pascal |
| 1671-74 | 4 function calculator: Gottfried Leibniz |
| 1796 | Music box: Antione Favre |
| 1801-04 | Punched card programmed loom: J. Jacquard |
| 1811 | Steam-powered printing press |
| 1826 | Photography: J. N. Niepce |
| 1830s | First design for mechanical digital computer : Babbage First program: Augusta, Lady Byron |
| 1837 | Daguerrotype photography: Louis Jacques Daguerre |
| 1846 | Punched paper tape: Alex Bain |
| 1867 | Typewriter: Sholes, Glidden & Soule |
| 1870 | Disk music box |
| 1877 | Wax cylinder phonograph: T. A. Edison |
| 1878 | Magnetic recording proposed by Oberlin Smith |
| 1884 | Punched card machine: H. Hollerith |
| 1887-88 | Disc phonograph: Emile Berliner |
| 1899 | First magnetic recording: V. Poulsen |
| 1906 | Electronic amplifier tube: Lee Deforest |
| 1919 | Electronic flip-flop memory element: W.H. Eccles & F.W. Jordan |
| 1928 | Analog computer: Vannevar Bush Magnetic tape recorder: F. Pfleumer |
| 1929 | Magnetic steel tape recorder prototype: Bell Labs |
| 1939 | Capacitive drum storage: Atanasoff & Berry |
| 1941 | Programmable calculator: K. Zuse Relay memory bank: K. Zuse |
| 1943 | Colossus electronic calculator Harvard Mk1 electromechanical calculator |
| 1945 | Phototypesetting machine |
| 1946 | Eniac computer: vacuum tube memory Magnetic drum : ERA |
| 1948 | Manchester MARK-1 computer: CRT storage tube Delay line memory Transistor invented |
| 1949 | EDSAC computer: acoustic storage tube Core memory invented: Jay Forrester & An Wang |
| 1950s | Decimal counter (decade) tube: Ericson, Sylvania |
| 1951 | Univac computer: Magnetic tape drivewith metal tape |
| 1952 | IBM 701 computer: Magnetic tape drive with plastic tape Bar code patented: Woodland & Silver First commercial use of core memory |
| 1956 | First moving head disk drive: IBM 350 RAMAC: 5 megabytes, 50 24" disks |
| 1958 | First integrated circuit: Jack Kilby, Texas Instruments |
| 1959 | Magnetic Ink Character Recognition: General Electric |
| 1961 | Helical scan tape recording: Ampex |
| 1963 | 14" disk drive and removable disk pack: IBM 1311. |
| 1964 | IBM S/360: Semiconductor memory |
| 1967 | Bubble memory: Bell Labs |
| 1968 | Phase change optical memory: Stanford Ovshinsky |
| 1971 | First floppy disk drive (8"): IBM |
| 1972 | Optical laserdisc: Philips & MCA |
| 1973 | First sealed hard disk drive: IBM 3340 Winchester |
| 1976 | First 5.25" floppy disk drive: Shugart Associates |
| 1979 | 8" hard disk drive: IBM, 64.5 MB on six disks |
| 1980 | 3.5" floppy disk: SonyCD standard: Sony/Philips |
| 1982 | Audio CD (Compact Disc): Sony |
| 1983 | 3.5" hard disk drive: Rodime, 10 MB on two disks |
| 1985 | CD-ROM: Sony/Philips 1/2" tape cartridge: IBM |
| 1987 | DAT (Digital Audio Tape):Sony/Philips |
| 1988 | 2.5" hard disk drive: PrairieTek, 20 MB on two disks |
| 1990 | CD-R standard: Sony/Philips |
| 1991 | 3.5" MO (magneto-optic) disk drive: Sony 1.8" hard disk drive: Integral Peripherals, 42.5 MB, 1 disk |
| 1994 | Flash memory: SanDisk |
| 1995 | DVD: Sony/Toshiba DVD-ROM: Pioneer |
| 1997 | HD-ROM: Norsam Technologies |
| 1999 | First 1" hard disk drive: IBM 340 megabytes, one 1" disk |
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This page last updated: April 20, 2010 Copyright © Museum of American Heritage |
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e.
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