History (1994): HDDs Behind Glass

In 1956, the world’s first HDD was shipped from San Jose, CA.

Now, 38 years and nearly 300 million units later, the city is honoring its home-grown technology in an unique Disk Drive Technology Showcase, to be displayed as part of a permanent collection in a technology museum.

Blanca Alvarado, vice mayor of San Jose, and Jim Porter of Disk/Trend unveiled Phase I of the project at Diskcon USA ’94, organized by IDEMA.

“The disk drive is a very significant part of Santa Clara Valley’s history,” said Porter.

The collection depicts the industry’s progress over time with disks ranging in size from 39 inches to 1.3 inches and a variety of drives and components highlighting key technological advancements.

All of the products were donated by industry members: Conner, IBM, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Integral Peripherals, Komag, Maxtor, NEC, Quantum, and SyQuest.

The showcase sponsors include Conner Peripherals, Quantum, and IDEMA.

A multimedia exhibit is planned for Phase II, scheduled to open in 1995, including educational videos and interactive demonstrations of disk drive technology.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 82, published on November 1994.