The Department of Computer Science of the University of Auckland announced the first removable 1GB hard drive in June 1980. The name of the hard drive was IBM 3380.
The given photo consisted of a single hard drive assembly (HDA) used in the IBM 3380 Direct Access Storage Device (DASD).
It had two parts. Each of them had a capacity of about 1.26GB. This means that the combined capacity of the two parts was equal to 2.52GB.
The single HDA weighed around 29 kilograms (about 64 pounds). You can only guess this by looking at the picture given above.
These are some facts related to IBM 3340.
- The world’s first 1 GB capacity disk drive was invented in the 1980s.
- Its name was IBM 3380 which was the size of a refrigerator.
- These were models of IBM 3380 Direct Access Storage devices – A4, A4F, AA4, AAF, B4, and BF4. Everyone’s prices were also different.
The “Oral History Panel on IBM 3380 Disk Drive” hosted by the Computer History Museum website is actually a detailed description available online about IBM’s 3380 series. IBM Archives also presents some detailed documentation about its 3380 series: “IBM 3380 Direct Access Storage Device” (PDF for archiving purpose).
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