Peripheral Equipment:Magnetic Disk Units

Brief History｜ Exhibits｜

year/month Timeline
1956/09
【World】IBM announced the world's first magnetic disk unit, the IBM 350 Disk Storage, which formed the core of the IBM 305 RAMAC computer system.
1962/10
【World】IBM announced the IBM 1311Disk Storage Drive, first equipped with removable disk packs in the world.
1963　 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 856, the company’s first magnetic disk unit.
1964　 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 461 disk pack unit to create an interchangeable mediaby placing six 14-inch disks in the pack.
1965　 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 631 magnetic disk unit using 41 disks with a diameter of 66 cm.
1965　 NEC completed the NEAC-32 large magnetic disk unit to provide a 270million bit memory capacity for the FONTAC.
1966/08 NEC announced the E261, the company’s first 14-inch magnetic disk pack unit.
1967/06 Hitachi completed the H-8564, the first large magnetic disk unit produced byJapanese manufacturer.
1968/06 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 463 removable disk file unit, using 14-inch diskfor a cartridge.
1968　 Mitsubishi Electric announced the M-811 small, fixed head disk unit for office computers and minicomputers.
1969/07 Mitsubishi Electric announced the M-834 removable disk pack drive unit that employed an electric magnetic-head positioning mechanism.
1970/03 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 472K, the company’s first cluster disk pack unit.
1970/05 Hitachi completed the H-8577 cluster disk drive unit for mainframe critical tasks.
1970/06
【World】IBM announced the IBM 3330 Data Storage model 1, which used removable media and first adopted track-following servo technology in the world.
1971/10 NEC annouced the N276 magnetic disk pack unit supporting 100 MB media.
1971　
【World】IBM began selling the IBM 23FD, the world’s first "floppy disk"
1972/05 Mitsubishi Electric annouced the M-801 cartridge disk drive unit for small computerswith the fastest magnetic head positioning performance in the Japaneseproducts on that time.
1973/03
【World】IBM announced the IBM 3340 (Winchester) Direct Access Storage Facility , a disk unit that incorporated disks and read/write-head assembly into a sealed cartridge, and made it removable and exchangeable
1973/06 Hitachi completed the H-8589-1 magnetic disk drive unit that employed the renovated magnetic head positioning method using VCM drive servo control.
1973/10 Mitsubishi Electric annouced the M836 high capacity removable magnetic disk unit.
1973　 NTT completed at 100 MB/spindle magnetic disk.
1973　 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 477A cluster disk pack unit, which is equipped with a command retry function and an ECC function.
1975/06 Hitachi completed the H-8589-11 magnetic disk drive unit, which doubled the trackdensity.
1975/07
【World】IBM announced the IBM 3350 Direct Access Storage, of which disks and read/write head-assembly were fixed in the drive and made airtight.
1976/04 NEC annouced the N7751 14-inch fixed disk unit with a capacity of635 MB.
1976/05 Mitsubishi Electric completed the M2850 removable magnetic disk unit with medium capacity using high-density writing and reading technology.
1977/06 Toshiba started the shipping of the MK-100F/MK-300F Series of 14-inch fixed magneticdisk units.
1978/07 Mitsubishi Electric annouced the M2883 fixed magnetic disk unit optionally supportingfixed magnetic head.
1978/10 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 493 magnetic disk unit that employed non-removable (fixed) disk module, achieving high capacity.
1978/10 Hitachi completed the H-8595 magnetic disk unit that employs a fixed disk andCSS type light load head.
1978　 NTT completed a magnetic disk storage unit with the world’s highest storage capacity of 800 MB/spindle.
1979/01
【World】IBM announced the IBM 62PC, a disk unit that first used 8-inch rigid disk in the world
1979/01
【World】IBM announced the IBM 3370 Direct Access Storage Device, which made use of thin-film head technology
1979/06 Fujitsu completed the M2301 (Swallow-1) high-performance magnetic disk for OEMthat uses 8-inch magnetic disks.
1979/10 NEC announced the N7755 14-inch fixed disk unit with a capacity of1270 MB.
1980/09 Mitsubishi Electric released the M2860 small fixed magnetic disk unit, whichused 8-inch magnetic disks.
1980　 NTT completed the PATTY high-capacity magnetic disk storage unit, which used 8 small, high-density HDA (Head Disk Assembly) with a storage capacity of 400 MB each to achieve a total storage capacity of 3.2 GB.
1981/02 Hitachi completed the DK811-4 magnetic disk unit for OEM using 8-inch disks.
1981/10 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6421 magnetic disk unit, which employed a 10.5-inchsmall diameter media (446 MB).
1981/10 Hitachi completed the H-8576 magnetic disk unit, with a rotary actuator and acompletely sealed head disk assembly.
1981/10 Mitsubishi Electric annouced the M4863 5.25-inch fixed magnetic disk unit.
1982/03 Fujitsu completed the M2351 (Eagle-1) high-performance, high-capacity magneticdisk for OEM, which employed 10.5-inch magnetic disks.
1982/11 Hitachi completed the H-8598 magnetic disk unit with double the capacity and2.5 times the faster data transfer rates. compared to the conventionalmodel.
1982/11 NEC annouced the N7761 14-inch fixed magnetic disk unit, which employed the thinfilm head for the first time in Japan..
1983/09 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6425A4, B4, and C4 magnetic disk units with 10.5-inchsmall diameter media (630 MB/DE), achieving high-speed data transferof 3M/s.
1983/10 Fujitsu completed the M2235 (Humming-1) magnetic disk for OEM with 5.25-inchmagnetic disks.
1983/10 Toshiba started the shipping of the MK-50FB Series 5-inch magnetic disk unit.
1983/12 Hitachi completed the DK511-5 magnetic disk unit, which employed 5-inch magneticdisks.
1983/12 Mitsubishi Electric announced the MR521 thin 5.25-inch fixed magnetic disk unit.
1984/02 NEC announced the N7756 small high-capacity fixed magnetic disk unit, which useda 9-inch plated media.
1984/09 NEC announced the D5126 fixed magnetic disk for OEM, with a thin 5-inch disk, a capacity of 25 MB.
1985/07 NEC released the D3116 and D3126 3.5-inch fixed magnetic disks for OEM, the largestcapacity in Japan.
1985/09 NEC announced the N7765 high-capacity 14-inch fixed magnetic disk with a capacityof 5.37 GB.
1985/12 Hitachi announced the H-6585 magnetic disk unit, which employed high-resistancecoating disks.
1985/12 Mitsubishi Electric completed the M4875 8-inch fixed magnetic disk unit equippedwith a thin film head.
1986/08 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6425M4, N4 high-speed, high-capacity magnetic disk with the storage capacity of 1.26 GB/DE, doubled it compared to the conventional model.
1986　 NTT completed the GEMMY high-speed, high-capacity magnetic disk storage unit equipped with four 2.2 GB high-capacity HDA to achieve the highest level of performance in the world with a storage capacity of 8.8 Gbytes.
1987/01 Fujitsu completed the M2225 (Picobird-1) magnetic disk for OEM, which employed a 3.5-inch magnetic disk.
1987　
【World】David Patterson and others at the University of California proposed the Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) concept
1988/01 Toshiba started the shipping of the MK-130FA Series 3.5-inch magnetic disk unit.
1988/04 Mitsubishi Electric announced the E1880 Series that achieved high capacity and high performance as well as saving space.
1988/05 NEC announced the D5655 5-inch fixed disk for OEM, which had the highest storage capacity in Japan at 179.8 MB.
1988/07 Hitachi completed the H-6586-K magnetic disk unit, which used a thin film head, 9.5-inch disks, linear VCM, and a high-density mount frame.
1989/06 Hitachi completed the DK312C magnetic disk unit for OEM, which used a 3.5-inch disk and a digital servo system.
1990/04 Hitachi completed the DK516 magnetic disk unit, which was the top-of-the-line 5.25-inch full height size and employed a thin film head and a spatter disk.
1990/04 Fujitsu completed the F6427 high-speed, high-capacity magnetic disk, which used 8.25-inch disks to greatly reduce the equipment footprint and power consumption.
1990/07 NEC announced the N7795 high-speed, high-capacity 9-inch fixed magnetic diskunit.
1990/09 Toshiba launched the MK1122FC, a 2.5-inch magnetic disk unit that used the world’s first glass-substrate media
1990/10 Hitachi completed the H-6587 magnetic disk unit, which used the coating disk final model and the world’s greatest actuator capacity.
1990/12 Hitachi completed the DK314C magnetic disk unit, which achieved the top-levelstorage capacity in Japan.
1991/03 NEC announced the ACOS6-series large-volume N7797 magnetic disk unit
1991/10 Toshiba began shipping samples of the MK2124FC, a large-capacity (130 MB) 2.5-inch magnetic disk unit
1991　
【World】IBM began shipping the IBM 0663, the world’s first disk unit to use MR heads
1992/11 Fujitsu began shipping the F6427 disk subsystem for mainframes with 8-inch hard disk drives and a maximum capacity of 45 GB
1992/11 Hitachi announced two highly reliable disk array units: the A-6511 (with either 17 GB or 34 GB of storage) and the A-6521 (with either 5.7 GB or 11.4 GB of storage)
1993/05 Toshiba began volume shipments of the MK2428FB and MK2428FC 2.5-inch magnetic disk units with 520 MB of storage
1993/08 Fujitsu began shipping the M2637, the companyﾕs first 2.5-inch hard disk drive for mobile devices
1993/11 Hitachi announced the DK211A-51 and DK211C-51, the company’s first 2.5-inch hard disk drives
1994/07 Fujitsu began shipping the F6429 disk subsystem for mainframes with 5.25-inch hard disk drives and a maximum capacity of 90.72 GB
1994/09 NEC announced the D2713 low-profile 2.5-inch magnetic disk unit with a capacity of 352 MB
1994/09 Fujitsu began shipping the M2915, a 3.5-inch hard disk drive for enterprises that was the first Fujitsu drive to use MR heads
1994/12 NEC announced the N3250 and N3760 disk array subsystems for the PX7800 that featured an FBA architecture
1995/01 Toshiba began shipping samples of the MK2728FB and MK2728FC 2.5-inch magnetic disk units with a maximum storage capacity of 1.08 GB
1995/04 Toshiba began shipping samples of the MK2720FB and MK2720FC 2.5-inch magnetic disk units with a maximum storage capacity of 1.35 GB
1995/04 Hitachi announced four models in the A-6531 series that came with up to 128 MB of cache memory and a wide range of storage capacities, from 4.6 GB to 66.6 GB
1995/05 Hitachi announced the H-6591 and H-6595 disk array subsystems with RAID-5 technology and dramatically better cost-per-GB ratios (more than 35 percent better than previous models)
1995/06 Fujitsu began shipping the F6493 disk subsystem for mainframes with RAID technology (RAID-3) and a maximum capacity of 181.44 GB
1995/08 NEC announced a number of the magnetic disk units, including the DSE1340A 3.5-inch magnetic disk unit with a best-in-class storage of 670 MB
1996/03 NEC announced the DVF4400S large-volume magnetic disk unit with MR heads
1996/04 Toshiba began shipping samples of the MK0200MAT 2.5-inch magnetic disk unit with the worldﾕs slimmest profile (8.45 mm)
1996/07 Hitachi began shipping the DK224A-14 2.5-inch hard disk drive, the first Hitachi drive with MR heads
1996/10 Toshiba began shipping the MK3303MAN 2.5-inch magnetic disk unit with a maximum capacity of 3.3 GB
1997/05 Hitachi announced the H-6592 and H-6595 disk array subsystems, successors to the H-6591 and H-6595, with connectivity to both large computers and open systems
1997/08 Fujitsu began shipping the F6495 disk subsystem for mainframes with RAID technology (RAID 0+1) and a maximum capacity of 714.42 GB
1997/11
IBM Japan announced the Deskstar 16GP, a 3.5-inch magnetic disk unit equipped with GMR heads
1997/11 Toshiba announced the MK3207MAT, a 2.5-inch magnetic disk unit equipped with GMR heads
1998/02 Hitachi announced the H-6593 and H-6596 disk array subsystems for mainframes and open systems that offered twice the subsystem performance of existing models and carried the world’s fastest disk drives (12,030 rpm)
1998/03 Fujitsu began shipping the MAC3091 and MAC3045, Fujitsuﾕs fastest 3.5-inch enterprise hard disk drives (10,033 rpm)
1998/04 Hitachi announced the DK3E1T-91 3.5-inch hard disk drive, the first OEM drive to reach a speed of 12,030 rpm
1998/05 Hitachi announced the DK228A-65, Hitachi’s first 2.5-inch hard disk drive with GMR heads
1998/06 Toshiba began shipping the MK2109MAF 2.5-inch magnetic disk unit with the worldﾕs thinnest profile (6.35 mm)
1998/07 NEC announced the DS450 disk array that delivered high reliability and large storage capacity at a low cost for Windows NT cluster systems (MSCS)
1998/07 Hitachi announced the A-6541 disk array unit for open systems that featured data processing speeds three times faster than previous models
1999/01 Fujitsu began shipping the MAF3364, the MAG3182, and the MAG3091 3.5-inch enterprise hard disk drives that were the first Fujitsu drives to use GMR heads
1999/07 Toshiba announced the MK1814GAV, a slim (12.5 mm) 2.5-inch magnetic disk unit with 18.1 GB of storage capacity
1999/12 Fujitsu began shipping the GR700 series of versatile RAID systems (RAID 0, 0+1, 5) for open systems with up to 13.7 TB of storage
2000/06 Hitachi announced the A-6542 disk array unit for single business departments that boosted data processing speeds more than three times over previous models
2000/06 Hitachi announced the H-65A1 and H-65A5 very-large-scale disk array subsystems for data centers with the world’s largest capacity (27 TB) and world’s fastest speeds
2000/07 Toshiba rolled out the MK2001MPL 1.8-inch magnetic disk unit with 2 GB of storage and a 5 mm profile
2000/11 NEC announced the iStorage S4100, a massive high-performance disk array unit that had the industryﾕs largest capacity (31 TB maximum) for a SAN storage unit, along with the iStorage S2100 mid-sized disk array unit
2000/11 Fujitsu began shipping the GR800 series of RAID systems (RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5) that were connectable to both mainframes and open systems　　

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