Memory

      It was once hypothisized that "there was no way that the motors and platters and flying read/write heads of memory could possibly keep up with the blinding pace of semiconductor logic." Fortunately for us, this position is far from reality.

     I found the article "Remembrance of Computer Disks Past" a thought provoking read. The article spoke about the desperate search for memory, and the progression from floppy discs, to tiny disc drives found in the Apple IPods, today. Although the tranformation through each memory host was interesting, I thought that the timing in which such great inventions had been marketed was very impressive. In just sixty-years memory has advanced from "24 stacked disks, each two feet in diameter and weighing more than 20 pounds each," to "tiny, silver-dollar-size"(Malone).

    This article made me think about, and appreciate memory in general. We record information every single day. Even in-class notetaking is a luxury that once did not exisit. There was a time when memory was restricted to the human-mind... frightening! Now, we can record data anywhere, anytime: cell phones, flashdrives, sticky-notes, voicemail, even the internet is a data recording system.

    As stated in the article, "Computer memory is the forgotten story of the electronics revolution. Yet it may be the most remarkable of all" (Malone).

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