Start here · Essential guide
Storage Media Over Time: From Cards to Flash
A plain-language overview of how computers kept data, from punched cards and magnetic tape to hard disks, optical discs and flash memory.
Machines and Interfaces
Storage and Displays
The media that held data and the screens that showed it, from cards to flash.
Cathode Ray Tube Displays on Early Computers
How glass cathode ray tubes became the screens of early computers, and how some were used as experimental memory before terminals and monitors became common.
Flash Memory and the Move to Solid-State Storage
How flash memory, invented in the 1980s, stores data with no moving parts and gradually replaced disks in cameras, phones, laptops and servers.
Floppy Disks and Portable Software
How the flexible magnetic disk, from the 8-inch original to the 3.5-inch version, let people carry programs and files between computers.
Hard Disk Drives and the Spinning Platter
How rotating magnetic disks gave computers direct access to data, from the room-sized IBM RAMAC of the 1950s to the sealed drives in personal computers.
Liquid Crystal Displays and Flat Screens
How liquid crystal displays grew from watch and calculator readouts into the flat panels that made laptops, phones and slim monitors possible.
Magnetic Tape: The Long-Lived Storage Workhorse
Why reels and cartridges of magnetic tape stayed in use from the early 1950s onward for bulk data, backups and archives, and what their limits are.
Optical Discs: CD, DVD and Their Relatives
How laser-read discs, from LaserDisc and CD to DVD and Blu-ray, came to carry music, software and video, and why they have faded from everyday use.
Punched Cards and Paper Tape as Data Storage
How holes in cardboard and paper became a data format, from Jacquard looms and census tabulators to the card decks and tape reels of early computer rooms.
Related topics
More in machines and interfaces
Hardware and Systems From vacuum tubes to chips: the machines and the system software that ran them. Interfaces and Input How people came to talk to computers through keyboards, mice and screens. Early Machines ENIAC, early electronic and commercial computers, and the mainframe era. Personal Computers How microprocessors and hobby kits led to computers at home. Mobile Computing Laptops, phones and handheld devices.