Fifty years ago today the world got the first glimpse of a hard disk drive.

The size of two refrigerators and weighing almost a tonne, IBM unveiled the concept which would revolutionise the world in 1956.

At that time, the huge drive could hold just 5 megabytes of information – the equivalent of just 5 digital photographs today – and stored data on 50 spinning disks coated in iron oxide paint, each of which was 24 inches in diameter.

However, the hard disk has come a long way in the last half century and platinum has played a large part in its phenomenal success.

Platinum is now used in hard disks to increase the amount of data which can be stored on hard disks, helping to enable the disks to become smaller so that they fit inside increasingly miniature applications, from laptops to mobile phones and MP3 players.

Demonstrating the importance of increased storage capabilities on the disks, Toshiba's Martin Larsson explained: "Without hard-disk drives, the space required to store the data for a small company of 25 people would require a storage area the size of a five-storey car park."


Ÿ Adfero Ltd