Book issu

THE ORIGIN OF MEDIA SPECIES

1

ARE WE T

G R E AT CIVILIZ Clay tablets appeared in Mesopotamia around 2400 B.C. for writing that was meant to last, as opposed to writing on more perishable material such as papyrus. And indeed such tablets did

last even beyond the expectations of their authors. Collections of tablets impressed with a stylus in soft clay and then baked in the sun have reached us today, The tangible traces of

ancient civilizations that have reached us today indicate which assets were considered of highest economic or symbolic value at the time, deserving the effort to be engraved

THE NEXT

T LOST

AT I O N ? on more demanding supports. Their remarkable preservation, even if not originally intended, is a natural side effect of the consideration they received at the time of their creation.

But what about preserving intellectual assets created today? For the most part these exist in digital form, such as documents, emails, images, videos, sound recordings, computer graphics,

websites, sensor data, scientific measurements, medical or legal records.

In this digital world, there is no direct equivalent of the tangible objects of the past, such as stone tablets or books.

Physically stored data cannot alone be considered as a tangible item in the sense of traditional preservation, since digital content cannot be accessed, and to a large extent, does not exist, without the mediation of a complex computer environment including, beyond physical storage proper, various combinations of hardware and software. Moreover, computer environments change at a rapid pace and are quickly obsolete, making any digital content that relies on a specific environment at a given point in time at risk of soon becoming inaccessible and hence lost.

This process is known as digital obsolescence.

Digital obsolescence is a greater threat to the preservation of digital content than the hazards associated

with traditional paper documents such as acid, mould and looting combined. Digital obsolescence happens quickly, is pervasive and hard to control.

Obsolescence threatens all aspects of the rendering chain, from bits in storage that degrades or for which readers are no longer available, to data formats with outdated documentation or for which the rendering software has disappeared, to software that runs on dead or rare devices and retired operating systems.

Digital preservation is therefore not just about preserving well identified tangible objects, as in the good old days, when maintaining the physical integrity of books, newspapers, manu-

scripts, pictures, etc. could be achieved with reasonable effort and care, and at a manageable pace. One could always store boxes of documents on long shelves and timely assess, organise and protect the acquired collections. This is no longer possible with digital content. There is little hope to secure durable access without taking specific actions before digital obsolescence comes into play. Soon after digital content has been produced, one must take irrevocable decisions about whether it should be sent to the future and in which form. Otherwise it will be lost forever.

As digital content exponentially grows and digital obsolescence accelerates, preserva-

tion will become a major concern for organisations with large data holdings and the need to preserve the critical knowledge contained within. It is anticipated that digital preservation will at some point be seamlessly integrated into the information lifecycle: information systems of the future will be preservationaware by design. To make this happen, the digital objects of the future will not be treated simply as bit streams associated with adequate hardware and software at their time of creation. They will become part of a rich information ecosystem self-descriptive of all that is essential to know about itself: its purpose, intended behaviour, the context within which it was

created, the user experience and more.

To make the descriptions of such ecosystems sustainable, they will be infrastructure-independent, with a strong focus on capturing their temporal evolution and authenticity.

Eventually these descriptions will travel into the future, where yet unknown information systems will need to make sense of them, irrespective of the hardware and software in place at the time when the content was initially created and used.

Future generations will then reconstruct not the original digital objects, but new ones.

Ones that will convey the essential properties of the originals albeit rendered in a significantly different mode.

This is a major shift in preservation: one no longer preserves tangible physical objects per se, but views or abstract representations of such objects that can be reconstructed in an unpredictable technological future.

This shift represents a major challenge for the long term preservation of modern cultural, intellectual and economic assets, the consequences of which are not yet widely recognized. Eventually, digital preservation will become a natural and transparent side effect of the proper governance of information and data.

Jean-Pierre Chanod, Xerox Senior scientist 2013

D Data, information and knowledge are closely related terms, but each has its own role in relation to the other.

Data is collected and analyzed to create information suitable for

A making decisions, while knowledge is derived from extensive amounts of experience dealing with information on a subject. That is to say, data is the least abstract, information the

next least, and knowledge the most. Data becomes information by interpretation; e.g., the height of Mt. Everest is generally considered as “data�, a book on Mt. Everest geological char-

T acteristics may be considered as “information”, and a report containing practical information on the best way to reach Mt. Everest’s peak may be considered as “knowledge”.

A Beynon-Davies uses the concept of a sign to distinguish between data and information; data is a series of symbols, while information occurs when the symbols are used to

refer to something.

It is people and computers who collect data and impose patterns on it. These patterns are seen as information which can be used to enhance knowledge.

U

N

POPULARITY

8 4 6

P

1 8 5 0

1 8 6 0

1 8 7 0

Punched tape (1846 – 1980s)

10

1 8 8 0

1 8 9 0

Piano roll (1883 – 2008)

1 9 0 0

1 9 1 0

Punched card (1890 – 1980s)

1 9 2 0

1 9 3 0

N

C

1 9 4 0

1 9 5 0

1 9 6 0

1 9 7 0

H

1 9 8 0

1 9 9 0

2 0 0 0

2 0 1 0

Aperture card (1943 – 2000s)

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0

5

Punched cards were first used around 1725

by Basile Bouchon and Jean-Baptiste Falcon as a more robust form of the perforated paper rolls then in use for controlling textile looms in France.

This technique was greatly improved by Joseph Marie Jacquard in his Jacquard loom in 1801.

Semen Korsakov was reputedly the first to use the punched cards in informatics for information store and search. Korsakov announced his new method and machines in September 1832; rather than seeking patents, he offered the machines for public use.

Charles Babbage proposed the use of “Num-

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ber Cards”, “pierced with certain holes and stand opposite levers connected with a set of figure wheels ... advanced they push in those levers opposite to which there are no holes on the card and thus transfer that number” in his description of the Calculating Engine’s Store.

Herman Hollerith invented the recording of data on a medium that could then be read by a machine.

Prior uses of machine readable media, such as those above (other than Korsakov), had been for control, not data. “After some initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched cards...”, developing punched card data processing technology for the 1890 US census.

Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company (1896) which was one of four companies that merged to form Computing Tabulating Recording Company (CTR), later renamed the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). IBM manufactured and marketed a variety of unit record machines for creating, sorting, and tabulating punched cards, even after expanding into electronic computers in the late 1950s. IBM developed punched card technology into a powerful tool for business data-processing and produced an extensive line of general purpose unit record machines. By 1950, the IBM card and IBM unit record machines

had become ubiquitous in industry and government.

“Do not fold, spindle or mutilate,” a generalized version of the warning that appeared on some punched cards (generally on those distributed as paper documents to be later returned for further machine processing, checks for example), became a motto for the post-World War II era.

From the 1900s, into the 1950s, punched cards were the primary medium for data entry, data storage, and processing in institutional computing.

According to the IBM Archives: “By 1937... IBM had 32 presses at work in Endicott, N.Y., printing, cutting and stacking five to 10 million punched cards every day.”

Punched cards were even used as legal documents, such as U.S. Government checks and savings bonds. The UNITYPER introduced magnetic tape for data entry in the 1950s.

During the 1960s, the punched card was gradually replaced as the primary means for data storage by magnetic tape, as better, more capable computers became available.

Mohawk Data Sciences introduced a magnetic tape encoder in 1965, a system marketed as a keypunch replacement which was somewhat successful, but punched cards were still commonly used for data entry and programming until the mid-1980s when the combination of lower cost magnetic disk storage, and affordable interactive terminals on

less expensive minicomputers made punched cards obsolete for this role as well.[10] However, their influence lives on through many standard conventions and file formats. The terminals that replaced the punched cards, the IBM 3270 for example, displayed 80 columns of text in text mode, for compatibility with existing software. Some programs still operate on the convention of 80 text columns, although fewer and fewer do as newer systems employ graphical user interfaces with variable-width type fonts.

Today punched cards are mostly obsolete and replaced with other storage methods, except for a few legacy systems and specialized applications.

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DATA / PUNCH

Paper Punch Card Date introduced: 1890 – 1980s

Dimensions: Various

Replaced by: Magnetic Tape

Storage Capacity: 80 Columns (80b)

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: IBM

Punched cards (also known as IBM cards or Hollerith cards) were used to control automated machinery or for data processing and consisted of stiff card with holes in predefined positions to represent data or commands.

Prior to their first use for data processing in the 1890 US census using cards designed by Herman Hollerith, forms of punched cards were used to control textile looms and mechanical organs.

The cards used in the 1890 US census had round holes, 12 rows and 24 columns. In 1928, IBM developed the 80 column card, using rectangular holes, and this doubled the data that could be stored on a card.

The 80 column card became the

dominant type, but other formats were available.

IBM and its competitors developed a variety of machines for creating, sorting, and tabulating punched cards and by the 1950s the punched card had become ubiquitous in industry and government. They were the primary medium for data entry, data storage, and processing even before the advent of the digital computer, and millions were created every day. They were a write-once medium that, and groups or ‘decks’ of cards formed programs or collections of data. Users could create cards using a desk-sized keypunch with a typewriter-like keyboard. A typing error generally necessitated repunching an entire card.

0.00000008% OF 1 GB

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SIMILAR FORMATS: Punched tape (1846 – 1980s) Piano roll (1883 – 2008) Music box disc (1886 – )

15

DATA / PUNCH

Piano Roll Date introduced: 1883 – 2008

Dimensions: Various

Replaced by: MIDI

Storage Capacity: 65 - 88 notes

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: Welte & Sons

A piano roll is a music storage medium used to operate a player piano, piano player or reproducing piano consisting of a continuous roll of paper with perforations punched into it. The roll moves over a reading system known as a ‘tracker bar’ and the playing cycle for each musical note is triggered when a perforation crosses the bar and is read. Rolls play at a specific, marked speed, where for example, 70 signifies 7 feet of paper travel in one minute.

A-1 to C#7) format was introduced in 1896 in the USA specifically for piano music. In 1900 a USA format playing all 88-notes of the standard piano scale was introduced. In 1902 a German 72-note scale (F-1, G-1 to E7) was introduced. All of these scales were subject to being operated by piano rolls of varying dimensions. The 1909 Buffalo Convention of US manufacturers standardized the US industry to the 88-note scale and fixed the physical dimensions for that scale.

The first paper rolls were used commercially by Welte & Sons in their Orchestrions beginning in 1883. The popularity of piano rolls peaked between 1900 and 1927.

Piano rolls were in continuous mass production up to 2008, being replaced by MIDI files that accomplish digitally what piano rolls do mechanically.

The majority of piano rolls play on three distinct musical scales. The 65-note (with a playing range of

Metronomic or arranged rolls are rolls produced by positioning the music slots without real-time input,

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SIMILAR FORMATS: Music box disc (1886 – ) Punched tape (1846 – 1980s)

17

DATA / PUNCH

Aperture Card Date introduced: 1943 – 2000s

Dimensions: 187 x 82.5 mm

Replaced by: Magnetic Tape

Storage Capacity: Aprox. 20 KB

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: U.S. Dept. of Defense

An aperture card was a type of punched card into which a piece of microfilm was mounted. They were introduced in 1943 and initially used by the US military to store photographs of strategic value.

The card itself contained metadata about the image punched into the card, along with information printed across the top of the card for visual identification. The microfilm was usu-

ally on 16 or 35mm film, and contained a single image of a document, typically an engineering drawing.

Machines could be used to sort and retrieve specific cards. More recently, machines have become available to scan and digitise remaining aperture cards, and the contents of 3000 aperture cards can be stored on one CD-ROM.

0.00002% OF 1 GB

18

SIMILAR FORMATS: Microfilm (1839 – ) Music box disc (1886 – )

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A

POPULARITY

8 4 6

T

1 8 5 0

1 8 6 0

1 8 7 0

LEO tape (1958 – 1981) DECtape (1964 – ) Magnetic stripe card (1964 – ) 9-track tape (1964 – 2003) QIC Data Cartridge (1972 – 2000s) DC100 (1975 – early 1980s) Compact Cassette (1975 - 1980s)

20

1 8 8 0

1 8 9 0

QIC Minicartridge (1970s – 1990s) DECtape II (1978 – early 1980s) ZX Microdrive (1983 – 1987) Wafadrive (1984 – late 1980s) IBM 3480 (1984 – 2004) Digital Linear Tape (DLT) (1984 – ) Streamer cassette (1980s – 1990s)

1 9 0 0

1 9 1 0

Digital Data Storage (DDS) (1989 – 2007) 8mm / Data8 (1987 – late 1990s) SD1 (1990s – 2000s) Ditto (1992 – 1999) QIC-Wide (1994 – 2000s) Mammoth (1994 – 2001)

1 9 2 0

1 9 3 0

P

1 9 4 0

1 9 5 0

1 9 6 0

Digital Tape Format (DTF) (1994 – 2004) IBM Magstar 3590 (1995 – ) Travan (1995 – 2002) QIC-EXtra (QIC EX) (1996 – 2000s) Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT)

E

1 9 7 0

1 9 8 0

(1996 – 2010) IBM Magstar MP 3570 (1996 – 2002) VXA (1999 – late 2000s) Advanced Digital Recording (ADR) (1999 – 2003) Linear Tape-Open (LTO) (2000

1 9 9 0

2 0 0 0

2 0 1 0

–) Super DLT (2001 – ) Super Advanced Intelligent Tape (SAIT) (2003 – 2010) DAT 160 / 320 (2007 – )

21

0

5

Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic

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tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders.

A device that stores computer data on magnetic tape is a tape drive (tape unit, streamer).

Magnetic tape revolutionized broadcast and recording. When all radio was live, it allowed

programming to be recorded. At a time when gramophone records were recorded in one take, it allowed recordings to be made in multiple parts, which were then mixed and edited with tolerable loss in quality. It is a key technology in early computer development, allow-

ing unparalleled amounts of data to be mechanically created, stored for long periods, and to be rapidly accessed.

Nowadays other technologies can perform the functions of magnetic tape. In many cases these technologies are replacing

tape. Despite this, innovation in the technology continues and companies like Sony and IBM continue to produce new magnetic tape drives.[1]

absorption of moisture into the binder of the tape, it can render the tape unusable.

Over years, magnetic tape can suffer from deterioration called sticky-shed syndrome. Caused by

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DATA / TAPE

LEO Tape Date introduced: 1958 – 1981

Dimensions: 210 x 210 x 35 mm

Replaced by: HDD

Storage Capacity: 8 KB

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: Lyons Electronic

The LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) was a series of mainframe computer systems, first used in 1951.

LEO was the first computer system used for commercial business applications, initially for J. Lyon and Co., and later for other companies when LEO systems were marketed after 1954.

Initially, paper tape and punched cards were used for input and output, with 3/4-inch magnetic tape being used later on the LEO II series.

LEO series computers were still in use until 1981 by the GPO.

0.000008% OF 1 GB 24

SIMILAR FORMATS: DECtape (1964 – ) SD1 (1990s – 2000s) Compact Cassette for data (1975 – late 1980s)

25

DATA / TAPE

Magnetic Stripe Card Date introduced: 1964 –

Dimensions: 85.6 x 53.98 mm

Replaced by: -

Storage Capacity: n/a

Obsolecence: In use

Created by: IBM

A magnetic stripe card is a means of storing data on a card using a band of magnetic material, which is read when the card is passed by a reading head.

They are commonly used for things like bank cards and travel tickets.

They first saw use on the London Underground in 1964, where they were used for travel tickets. They were further developed by IBM into the familiar plastic credit card format, and the standard for credit cards was adopted in the US in 1969, and internationally a couple of years later.

On plastic cards, the magnetic stripe is hot stamped on the plastic, while on cardboard cards, the magnetic stripe is applied with magnetic slurry paint or in the form of a hot foil stripe.

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The magnetic stripes are usually either high-coercivity (usually nearly black in colour) or low-coercivity (usually light brown in colour). High-coercivity stripes require higher amount of magnetic energy to encode, and are harder to erase making them suitable for bank cards. Low-coercivity stripes require a lower amount of magnetic energy to record, and hence the card writers are much cheaper but the cards are easier to erase giving them a shorter lifespan.

This makes them more suitable for applications such as train tickets.

Cards with magnetic stripes may also contain an integrated circuit (making them ‘smart cards’) with RFID tags or a magnetic field for proximity reading, or metal contacts to electrically connect the card to the reader.

SIMILAR FORMATS: 9-track tape (1964 – 2003) Compact Cassette (1963 – 2000s) Aperture card (1943 – 2000s)

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DATA / TAPE

9-Track Tape Date introduced: 1964 – 2003

Dimensions: 275 x 275 x 25 mm

Replaced by: HDD

Storage Capacity: 20 - 140 MB

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: IBM

9-track computer tape was introduced in 1964 for use with the IBM System/360, replacing 7-track tape. The tape itself is 1/2-inch wide, with 8 data tracks and one parity track, all parallel.

column under relatively low tension, to avoid damage or stretching of the tape due to tape snatch. Tapes included an end-of-tape (EOT) foil strip.

When EOT was encountered, the unit would either halt or rewind the tape onto the supply reel.

To load a tape, the protective ring is removed from the outside of the tape reel, and the reel installed on the supply hub. The tape leader is then threaded through the various roller assemblies and onto the take-up reel.

9-track tapes commonly had densities of 800, 1600, and 6250 cpi, giving approximately 20 MB, 40 MB and 140 MB respectively on a standard 2,400 feet (730 m) reel.

In most drives, a vacuum system provided a physical buffer by storing a short length of tape in the vacuum

It was used for over 30 years, but drive production ceased in 2003, tape production having ended in 2002.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 28

SIMILAR FORMATS: IBM 3480 (1984 – 2004) Digital Linear Tape (DLT) (1984 – ) VHS (1977 – late 2000s)

29

DATA / TAPE

Mammoth Date introduced: 1994 – 2001

Dimensions: 95 x 62 x 15 mm

Replaced by: Mammoth-2

Storage Capacity: 20 GB

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: Exabyte

Mammoth was a higher-capacity version of 8mm or Data8 tape and was introduced in 1994 by Exabyte.

Mammoth-2 was subsequently introduced in 1999.

When introduced, a Mammoth tape could hold 20 GB of data.

Mammoth cassettes used Advanced Metal Evaporated (AME) tape. Although they read (but not write) earlier Exabyte 8mm tapes which used metal particle tape,

it was required that Mammoth drives be cleaned after every time these were used. Mammoth-2 used tape called ‘AME with SmartClean’. Although Mammoth tapes could be used, it was not recommended.

Mammoth-2 could hold 30 GB of data.

In 2001, Exabyte merged with Ecrix, makers of VXA, and Exabyte moved away from Mammoth.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 30

SIMILAR FORMATS: 8mm / Data8 (1987 – late 1990s) VXA (1999 – late 2000s) Travan (1995 – 2002)

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DATA / TAPE

IBM 3480 Date introduced: 1984 – 2004

Dimensions: 125 x 109 x 25 mm

Replaced by: IBM Magstar

Storage Capacity: 200 - 400 MB

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: IBM

IBM introduced the 3480 tape cartridge format in 1984 for use on the IBM System/370 computers, to replace the existing 9-track tape reel format.

It consisted of a rectangular cartridge containing a single reel of ½-inch chromium dioxide tape. The take-up reel is inside the drive.

By employing 18 recording tracks, data transfer was much faster than 9-track tape, and a cartridge could store 200 MB. Various manafacturers made drives, and tapes were transferable between different manufacturer’s drives.

In 1986, hardware-based data compression allowed for 400 MB per cartridge, renamed as the IBM 3490.

This was followed by the IBM 3490E format in 1991, employing 36 tracks, and allowing up to 2400 MB with hardware-based data compression.

The IBM 3480 family of formats was superseded by the IBM 3590 or Magstar family, and the last IBM 3480 family drives were manufactured in 2004.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 32

SIMILAR FORMATS: IBM Magstar 3590 (1995 – ) Digital Linear Tape (1984 – ) QIC Data Cartridge (1972 – 2000s)

33

POPULARITY

8 4 6

D I S C

1 8 5 0

1 8 6 0

1 8 7 0

8-inch floppy disk (1971 – 1980s) Control Data Corporation 9877 (1974 – 1990s) Digital Equipment Corporation RK07 (1976 – 1990s) 5.25-inch minifloppy disk (1976 – 1990s) Olivetti minidisc (1977 – 1980s) Floppy ROM (1977 – mid 1980s) 2-inch Floppy disk (1981 – 1990s) 3-inch Compact Floppy disk (1982 – early 1990s)

34

1 8 8 0

1 8 9 0

3.5-inch microfloppy disk (1982 – 1990s) Iomega Bernoulli disk 8-inch (1982 – 1987) Apple FileWare (1983 – 1984) 5.25-inch magneto-optical disk (1985 – 2000s) Iomega Bernoulli disk 5.25-inch (1987 – 1994) CD-ROM (1985 – ) LV-ROM (1986 – late 1980s)

1 9 0 0

1 9 1 0

3.5-inch microfloppy disk (HD) (1987 – late 2000s) SyQuest 5.25-inch (1988 – 1998) 3.5-inch microfloppy (Extended Density) (1991 – mid 1990s) CD-i (Compact Disc Interactive) (1991 – 1998) 3.5-inch magneto-optical disk (1991 – 2000s) Compact Disc-Recordable (CD-R) (1991 – ) Floptical (1991 – 1993)

1 9 2 0

1 9 3 0

C ( K )

1 9 4 0

1 9 5 0

1 9 6 0

LD-ROM (1993 – 1996) SyQuest 3.5-inch (105/270MB) (1993 – 1998) MD Data (Mini Disc Data) (1993 – 2000s) Iomega Zip (1994 – 2003) Phase-change Dual (PD) disk (1995 – 1998) SyQuest EZ135 (1995 – 1996) Iomega Jaz (1995 – 2002) SyQuest EzFlyer (1996 – 1998) Syquest SyJet (1996 – 1998)

1 9 7 0

1 9 8 0

SyQuest SparQ (1997 – 1998) SuperDisk (1997 – early 2000s) Compact Disc-ReWritable (CD-RW) (1997 – ) Caleb UHD144 / it drive (1998 – 2002) Castlewood Orb (1998 – 2004) HiFD (High capacity Floppy Disk) (1998 – early 2000s) DVD-RAM (1998 – ) Iomega Clik! / PocketZip (1999 – early 2000s)

1 9 9 0

2 0 0 0

2 0 1 0

Microdrive (1999 – early 2010s) GD-ROM (1999 – ) DVD-RW (1999 – ) Iomega Zip U250 (2001 – 2003) DVD+RW (2001 – ) DVD+R (2002 – ) Iomega Rev (2004 – 2010) Hi-MD (2004 – 2011) Universal Media Disc (2004 – ) HD-DVD-R (2007 – 2008) CD-ROM postage stamps (2008 – 2009)

35

0

5

Disk storage is a general category of storage mechanisms where data are recorded by various electronic, magnetic, optical, or mechanical changes to a surface layer of one or more rotating disks. A disk drive is a device implementing such a storage mechanism and is usually distinguished from the disk medium. Notable types are the hard disk

36

drive (HDD) containing a non-removable disk, the floppy disk drive (FDD) and its removable floppy disk, and various optical disc drives and associated optical disc media.

Disk and disc are used interchangeably except where trademarks preclude one usage, e.g. the Compact Disc logo. The choice of a particular form

is frequently historical, as in IBM’s usage of the disk form beginning in 1956 with the “IBM 350 disk storage unit�.

Audio information was originally recorded by analog methods (see Sound recording and reproduction). Similarly the first video disc used an analog recording method. In the music industry,

analog recording has been mostly replaced by digital optical technology where the data are recorded in a digital format with optical information.

The first commercial digital disk storage device was the IBM 350 which shipped in 1956 as a part of the IBM 305 RAMAC computing system.

The random-access,

low-density storage of disks was developed to complement the already used sequential-access, high-density storage provided by tape drives using magnetic tape. Vigorous innovation in disk storage technology, coupled with less vigorous innovation in tape storage, has reduced the difference in acquisition cost per terabyte between disk storage and

tape storage; however, the total cost of ownership of data on disk including power and management remains larger than that of tape.

Disk storage is now used in both computer storage and consumer electronic storage, e.g., audio CDs and video discs (standard DVD and Blu-ray).

37

DATA / DISKS

8” Floppy Date introduced: 1971 – 1980s

Dimensions: 203 x 203 x 1.6 mm

Replaced by: 5.25-in Minifloppy

Storage Capacity: 80 KB to 1.212 KB

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: IBM

The 8 inch floppy disk (or diskette) was a magnetic storage disk for data that was introduced commercially by IBM in 1971.

It was designed by a team in IBM as an inexpensive way to load data into the IBM System/370, and was initially simply a read-only bare disk (the ‘Memory Disk’) holding 80 KB of data.

By the time of it’s commercial launch, it had been enclosed in a plastic enveloped lined with fabric, to protect the disk and minimise the problems caused by dust.

The first read-write version was introduced in 1972 by Memorex, and could hold 175 KB on 50 tracks (with 8 sectors per track). It was hard-sectored and had 8 sector holes (and an index hole) on the outer diameter.

Further improvements led to teflon-lubricated fabric liners, teflon-coated disks and an eventual increase in capacity to 1.2 MB in the double-sided double density (DSDD) version in 1977.

It was eventually displaced by the 5.25-inch minifloppy disk introduced in 1976.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 38

SIMILAR FORMATS: 5.25-inch minifloppy disk (1976 – early 1990s) Bernoulli disk 8-inch (1982 – 1987) Olivetti minidisc (1977 – early 1980s) Apple FileWare / Twiggy Disk (1983 – 1984)

39

DATA / DISK

Hard Disk Drive Date introduced: 1956 –

Dimensions: 15 x 11 x 1 mm

Replaced by: -

Storage Capacity: 30 MB to 8 TB

Obsolecence: In use

Created by: IBM

Hard disk drives consist of one of more rigid disks (or platters) with magnetic heads arranged on a moving actuator arm to read and write data to the surfaces.

The 2.5-inch form factor is one of the two dominant types on the market, with the 3.5-inch form factor being the other. 2-5-inch hard disk drives were introduced in 1988 by PrarieTek and have become most common in laptops and other mobile devices, as well as game consoles such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

They are normally 9.5mm high with a single platter, but taller drives with two or more platters have been pro-

duced, as well as smaller sizes (a 5mm version by Western Digital was introduced in 2013 for use in UltraBooks).

Whilst not strictly speaking removable media, 2.5-inch hard disk drives form the basis for many external hard disk drives such as those connected by USB, and docks are available to read hard disk drives without installing them.

Solid-state drives using flash memory are beginning to replace hard disk drives for uses where speed, power consumption and durability are more important considerations, such as in tablet computing.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 40

SIMILAR FORMATS: Digital Equipment Corporation RK07 (1976 – 1990s) Control Data Corporation 9877 (1974 – 1990s) SyQuest 5.25-inch (44/88/200MB) (1988 – 1998) Iomega Rev (2004 – 2010)

41

DATA / DISK

3.5 Microfloppy Disk Date introduced: 1982 – 1990s

Dimensions: 93.7 x 90 x 3.3 mm

Replaced by: Compact Disc

Storage Capacity: 360 KB - 1.44 MB

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: Sony

The 3.5-inch microfloppy disk was a magnetic disk format for data storage, originally introduced by Sony in 1982. An improved design was introduced by the Microfloppy Industry Committee in 1983, with a single-sided disk and a capacity of 360 KB. A double-sided disk was introduced in 1984 (with a capacity of 720 KB).

High Density (HD) 1.44 MB disks, recognisable by a second hole in the opposite corner to the write-protect notch and a HD logo, were introduced in 1987.

The 3.5-inch disk was housed in a semi-rigid case, with a metal shutter

to protect the disk. Because they were not quite square, it was not possible to insert a disk the wrong way round.

Macintosh computers used the same disks as other systems, but with different capacities due to varying the disk rotation speed with the arm position. This allowed single-sided floppies to provide 400 KB (twice for double-sided).

The 3.5-inch HD (High Density) microfloppy quickly become almost universally used on PC and Macintosh hardware.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 42

SIMILAR FORMATS: 3.5-inch microfloppy (DS / DD) (1982 – 1990s) HiFD (1998 – early 2000s) 3.5-inch microfloppy (ED) (1991 – mid 1990s) 3-inch Compact Floppy disk (1982 – 1991)

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DATA / DISK

Iomega Zip Date introduced: 1994 – 2003

Dimensions: 99 x 97.8 x 6.5 mm

Replaced by: CD and USB Flash

Storage Capacity: 100 to 750 MB

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: Iomega

Zip was a high-capacity floppy disk format introduced in 1994 by Iomega.

It was initially available with 100 MB capacity, with 250 MB and 750 MB versions becoming available later. Higher-capacity drives can read lower-capacity disks. The disks had a retroreflective spot that allowed that drive to recognise the capacity of the disk, and eject it if it was of a higher capacity than the drive.

The drives were available as internal or external drives, with a variety of interfaces.

Zip drives sold well initially due to the low price and high capacity for

the time, and were a cheaper alternative to SyQuest disks. In 1998, a class action lawsuit was filed against Iomega over a type of Zip drive failure dubbed the ‘click of death’.

After 1999 sales declined due to the falling cost of CD-R and CD-RW disks, followed by USB memory sticks.

A variant on Zip, the Zip U250 was launched in 2001 with some changes to improve reliability, and this could be used in Zip 250 drives.

Zip was discontinued in 2003.

The Zip brand was also used for recordable CD drives.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 44

SIMILAR FORMATS: Iomega Zip U250 (2001 – 2003) Iomega Clik! / PocketZip (1999 – early 2000s) Bernoulli disk 5.25-inch (1987 – 1994) HiFD (1998 – early 2000s)

45

DATA / DISC

Compact Disc (CD) Date introduced: 1983 –

Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 1.2 mm

Replaced by: -

Storage Capacity: 640 to 700 MB

Obsolecence: In use

Created by: Sony and Philips

Compact Disc (Compact Disc Digital Audio or CD) is a digital optical disc format for audio playback, released commercially in Japan in late 1982 (followed by Europe in early 1983). It developed out of work by Sony and Philips, and is an evolution of the earlier LaserDisc format. The first standard (known as the Red Book CDDA standard) was published in 1980.

Philips contributed the general manufacturing process, based on video LaserDisc technology. Philips also contributed eight-to-fourteen modulation (EFM), which offers a certain resilience to defects such as scratches and fingerprints, while Sony contributed the error-correction method, CIRC. A standard CD has a diameter of 120 millimetres (4.7 in) and can hold up to 74 or 80 minutes. The initial capacity

of 74 minutes was reportedly specified by Sony executive Norio Ohga so as to be able to contain the entirety of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on one disc. A CD is 1.2 millimetres thick, and weighs 15–20 grams. Scanning velocity is approximately 500 rpm at the inside of the disc, and approximately 200 rpm at the outside edge (a disc played from beginning to end slows down during playback).

The first album to be released on CD was Billy Joel’s 52nd Street, which reached the market alongside Sony’s CDP-101 CD player on 1 October 1982 in Japan.

The format was later developed to cover data storage (in the form of the CD-ROM), and recordable versions (CD-R and CD-RW).

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 46

SIMILAR FORMATS: CD single (1985 – ) Super Audio CD (1999 – ) CD-ROM (1985 – ) Video CD (1993 – 2000s)

47

POPULARITY

8 4 6

SOLID

1 8 5 0

1 8 6 0

1 8 7 0

Psion Organiser Datapak (1984 – 1992) PCMCIA / PC Card (1990 – 2000s) Psion Series 3 Solid State Disk (1991 – 1999)

48

1 8 8 0

1 8 9 0

Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) full-size (1991 – 2000s) CompactFlash (Type I) (1994 – ) Miniature Card (1995 – late 1990s) SmartMedia (1995 – early 2000s)

1 9 0 0

1 9 1 0

SIM mini-size (1996 – ) MultiMedia Card (1997 – ) Memory Stick (1998 – ) Handspring Springboard expansion module (1999 – 2002)

1 9 2 0

1 9 3 0

S TAT E

1 9 4 0

1 9 5 0

1 9 6 0

Secure Digital (SD) (1999 – ) USB flash drive (2000 – ) xD-Picture Card (2002 – 2010) Memory Stick Duo (2002 – ) miniSD (2003 – 2008)

1 9 7 0

1 9 8 0

RS-MMC (Reduced Size MultiMedia Card) (2004 – 2006) microSD (2005 – ) Memory Stick Micro (M2) (2006 – ) SIM micro-size (2010 – )

1 9 9 0

2 0 0 0

2 0 1 0

Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) nano-size (2012 – )

49

0

5

A solid-state drive (SSD) (also known as a solid-state disk or electronic disk, though it contains no actual disk, nor a drive motor to spin a disk) is a data storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies as memory to store data persistently. SSD technology uses electronic interfaces compatible with traditional block input/out-

50

put (I/O) hard disk drives, thus permitting simple replacement in common applications. Additionally, new I/O interfaces, like SATA Express, have been designed to address specific requirements of the SSD technology.

SSDs have no moving (mechanical) components. This distinguishes

them from traditional electromechanical magnetic disks such as hard disk drives (HDDs) or floppy disks, which contain spinning disks and movable read/write heads. Compared with electromechanical disks, SSDs are typically more resistant to physical shock, run silently, have lower access time, and less latency.

However, while the price of SSDs has continued to decline over time, consumer-grade SSDs are still roughly six to seven times more expensive per unit of storage than consumer-grade HDDs. As of 2014, most SSDs use NAND-based flash memory, which retains data without power. For applications

requiring fast access, but not necessarily data persistence after power loss, SSDs may be constructed from random-access memory (RAM). Such devices may employ separate power sources, such as batteries, to maintain data after power loss.

(SSHDs) combine the features of SSDs and HDDs in the same unit, containing a large hard disk drive and an SSD cache to improve performance of frequently accessed data.

Hybrid drives or solid-state hybrid drives

51

DATA / SOLID STATE

Psion Organiser Date introduced: 1984 – 1992

Dimensions: 29 x 60 x 14 mm

Replaced by: N/A

Storage Capacity: 8 to 256 KB

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: Psion

The Psion Organiser was an early personal digital assistant launched

by Psion in 1984, combining features such as an electronic diary and searchable address book in a handheld device.

The Organiser could use up to two removable storage modules, known as Datapaks using EPROM storage. These could be written to, but needed to be erased using a special device before they could be written to again. Datapaks could also come pre-loaded with software, for example to extend the functions of the built-in calculator.

more RAM among its improvements. It could also use a number of different types of improved Datapaks, containing either EPROM or battery-backed RAM storage each storing between 8 KB and 128 KB of data. Later flashpaks (EEPROM) and RAMpaks were added to the range, capable of storing up to 256 KB on each extension slot.

The Organiser II had more built-in applications such as a database and alarm clock, was programmable by end-users, and offered an external device slot for modules such as telephone diallers, barcode readers and thermal printers.

In 1986, the Organiser II was introduced with a two-line display and

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 52

SIMILAR FORMATS: Psion Series 3 Solid State Disk (1991 – 1999) Handspring Springboard expansion module (1999 – 2002) SmartMedia (1995 – early 2000s)

53

DATA / SOLID STATE

USB Flash Drive Date introduced: 2000 -

Dimensions: Various

Replaced by: -

Storage Capacity: 32 MB to 128 GB

Obsolecence: In use

Created by: Trek Technology

USB flash drives are a data storage format originally introduced commercially in 2000 by Trek Technology (under the name ThumbDrive) and by IBM (under the name DiskOnKey, developed by M-Systems).

The DiskOnKey offered storage of 8 MB, more than five times the capacity of the then-common floppy disk.

As the name suggests, they consist of flash memory with, in most cases, a standard type-A USB connection.

parts. Additionally, they are immune to magnetic interference (unlike floppy disks), and unharmed by surface scratches (unlike CDs).

USB flash drives are (usually) smaller and faster than floppy disks or CDs, and are more durable and reliable because they have no moving

Some USB flash drives may have novelty housing, or may be integrated into other items such as watches or pens.

USB flash drives draw power from the computer via the USB connection. Some devices combine the functionality of a digital audio player with USB flash storage; they require a battery only when used to play music.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 54

SIMILAR FORMATS: Microdrive (1999 – early 2010s) USB flash drive audio (2006 – ) microSD (2005 – ) Iomega Rev (2004 – 2010)

55

DATA / SOLID STATE

Micro SD card Date introduced: 2005 –

Dimensions: 15 x 11 x 1 mm

Replaced by: -

Storage Capacity: 2 GB to 128 GB

Obsolecence: In use

Created by: SanDisk

Initially, microSD cards were available in capacities of 32, 64, and 128 MB, but the original microSD standard allowed for up to 2 GB of storage. microSDHC (introduced in 2006) allows for between 4 and 32 GB, and microSDXC (introduced in 2009) allows for up to 2 TB. As of May 2014, that largest commonly available microSDXC cards are 64 GB.

microSD has also been used as a format to distribute music, most notably in the form of Gruvi and subsequently slotMusic by Sandisk, and also on generic microSD cards.

Most cassettes used a tape leader, but for certain applications such as dictation, these were removed.

There were also endless loop tapes available for applications such as answerphones.

microSD cards will work in devices that require SD or miniSD cards by use of an adaptor.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 56

SIMILAR FORMATS: slotMusic (2008 – 2012) miniSD (2003 – 2008) microSD audio (2007 – late 2000s) CompactFlash (1994 – )

57

DATA / SOLID STATE

SmartMedia Date introduced: 1995 – 2000s

Dimensions: 45.1 x 37.5 x 0.8 mm

Replaced by: SD Card

Storage Capacity: 2 to 128 MB

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: Toshiba

SmartMedia was a flash memory card format launched in 1995 by Toshiba. It was initially intended to be a replacement for the 3.5-inch floppy disk, and originally named Solid State Floppy Disk Card (SSFDC).

SmartMedia cards can be used in a standard 3.5-inch floppy disk drive by means of a FlashPath adapter, but were limited to floppy disk transfer speeds, and were read-only in Macintosh systems.

SmartMedia became popular for digital cameras but because no cards beyond 128 MB were released, camera manufacturers switched to other formats such as Secure Digital or xD.

It was one of the smallest and thinnest of the early memory cards, at just 0.76mm thick. SmartMedia cards lack a built-in controller chip, which kept the cost down but also made it impossible for the card to perform automatic wear levelling, a process which prevents premature wearout of a sector by mapping the writes to various other sectors in the card.

SmartMedia cards came in two formats, 5 V, and later 3.3 V and were almost identical except for the reversed placement of the notched corner. Capacities ranged from 2 MB to 128 MB.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 58

SIMILAR FORMATS: Memory Stick (1998 – ) CompactFlash (1994 – ) PCMCIA / PC Card (1990 – mid 2000s) Sony PlayStation Memory Card (1995 – 2006)

59

DATA / SOLID STATE

Miniature Card Date introduced: 1995 – 1999

Dimensions: 37 x 45 x 3.5 mm

Replaced by: SmartMedia

Storage Capacity: 64 MB

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: Intel

Introduced by Intel in 1995, the Miniature Card (or MiniCard) was a memory card for devices such as PDAs, digital cameras and digital audio recorders. As well as flash memory, Miniature Cards could also contain ROM, DRAM or SRAM, with a capacity of up to 64 MB.

tors. They were available in 3.3 or 5 volt versions.

The format competed with CompactFlash and SmartMedia, which were more successful and Miniature Card had disappeared by the end of the 1990s.

Miniature Cards were 37 x 45 x 3.5 mm thick and used 60-pin connec-

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 60

SIMILAR FORMATS: CompactFlash (1994 – ) PCMCIA / PC Card (1990 – mid 2000s) SmartMedia (1995 – early 2000s) Secure Digital (1999 – )

61

I

D

POPULARITY

8 4 6

V

1 8 5 0

1 8 6 0

1 8 7 0

Sony EV 1-inch open reel video tape (1964 – early 1970s) 1/2-inch EIAJ open reel video tape (1970 – 1982) Cartrivision (1972 – 1973) Video Cassette Recording (VCR) (1972 – 1979) U-matic (1973 – 1990s) U-matic S (1974 – 1990s)

62

1 8 8 0

1 8 9 0

Television Electronic Disc (TeD) (1975 – 1978) 1-inch Type C (1976 – mid 1990s) VHS (Video Home System) (1977 – late 2000s) Betamax (1978 – 1988) Video 2000 / Video Compact Cassette (1979 – 1988)

1 9 0 0

1 9 1 0

Compact Video Cassette (CVC) (1980 – mid 1980s) Capacitance Electronic Disk (CED) / SelectaVision (1981 – 1986) Betacam / Betacam SP (1982 – ) Compact VHS (VHS-C) (1982 – 2000s) Video High Density (VHD) (1983 – 1986) Video single (1983 – 1990s)

1 9 2 0

1 9 3 0

D

E

1 9 4 0

1 9 5 0

LaserDisc (1983 – 2001) LaserDisc EP (1983 – 2001) Video8 (1985 – 2000s) MII (1986 – ) D1 (1987 – ) CD-Video (1987 – 1992) S-VHS (1987 – early 2000s) D2 (1988 – 2000s) Hi8 (1989 – 2007) Digital Betacam (1993 – )

1 9 6 0

1 9 7 0

0

1 9 8 0

Video CD (1993 – 2000s) D5 /D5 HD (1994 – ) MiniDV (1995 – late 2000s) Betacam SX (1996 – ) DVD-Video (1998 – ) DIVX (Digital Video Express) (1998 – 1999) Digital 8 (1999 – 2007) MicroMV (2001 – 2006) D-Theater (2002 – 2004)

1 9 9 0

2 0 0 0

2 0 1 0

Personal Video Disc (PVD) (2003 – 2006) Flexplay (2003 – 2009) Universal Media Disk (2004 -) DualDisc (2005 – 2009) HD DVD (2006 – 2008) Blu-ray Disc (2006 – )

63

0

5

VIDEO / TAPE

Betamax Date introduced: 1978 – 1988s

Dimensions: 155 x 95 x 25 mm

Replaced by: VHS

Storage Capacity: 120 to 240 min.

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: Sony

Betamax was an analogue video tape format aimed at the consumer market, and introduced by Sony to the US market in 1975 (and the UK in 1978). The cassettes used 1/2-inch tape, with an initial capacity of 1 hour recording time.

Betamax and VHS – introduced in 1977 in the UK – competed in a format war eventually won by VHS despite Betamax having almost 100% of the market prior to the introduction of VHS and being the first commercially successful consumer video format.

Betamax was introduced to the UK in 1978 and held a 25% market share in 1981, but by 1986, it was down to just 7.5%. One of the reasons for its failure was the longer recording times of VHS, which already offered

2-hours when introduced, and although Betamax recording times were extended, they never caught up with VHS. Another reason was the easier availability of VHS machines to rent in the UK. Although Betamax could potentially offer better picture quality, on domestic television sets of the time, the difference was negligible.

By 1988, Sony themselves began producing VHS video recorders and the format war was effectively lost.

However, Betamax still had it supporters and Sony continued to produce Betamax recorders in the US until 1993, and in Japan until 2002.

In the professional market, Betacam (derived from Betamax) had more success.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 64

SIMILAR FORMATS: VHS (Video Home System) (1977 – late 2000s) Video8 (1985 – 2000s) 1/2-inch EIAJ open reel tape (1970 – 1982) Video 2000 / Video Compact Cassette (1979 – 1988)

65

VIDEO / TAPE

Video Home System (VHS) Date introduced: 1977 – 2000s

Dimensions: 187 x 104 x 24 mm

Replaced by: DVD

Storage Capacity: 60 to 1038 min

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: JVC

VHS (Video Home System) was a video tape cassette format developed by JVC, and was the most successful of the video tape formats for consumers, outlasting formats such as Betamax and Video 2000.

JVC began development of VHS in 1971, with 12 objectives in building a home video recording unit. In 1974, the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry wanted to standardise on one consumer video format, and the preferred choice was Sony’s proprietary Betamax format, but pressure from JVC and Matsushita persuaded them to drop the push to standardise on a single format. JVC believed that an open standard, with the format shared among competitors without licensing the technology, was better for the consumer.

The first VHS recorder was available in Japan in 1976, and reached the UK in 1977.

A VHS cassette includes a flip-up cover that protects the 1/2-inch tape, and an anti-de spooling mechanism. Clear tape at both ends of the tape provide an optical auto-stop for the VCR transport mechanism. VHS machines pull the tape from the cassette shell and wrap it around the inclined head drum, using M-lacing, where the tape is drawn out by two threading posts and wrapped around more than 180 degrees of the head drum in a shape roughly approximating the letter M. The cassette can hold a maximum of around 430 m of tape, giving up to five hours playing time at standard play (SP) quality.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 66

SIMILAR FORMATS: Compact VHS (VHS-C) (1982 – late 2000s) S-VHS (1987 – early 2000s) Video8 (1985 – 2000s) Hi8 (1989 – 2007)

67

VIDEO / TAPE

1/2in EIAJ Open Reel VT Date introduced: 1970 – 1982

Dimensions: 178 x 178 x 13 mm

Replaced by: VHS

Storage Capacity: 30 to 60 min

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: Sony

EIAJ-1 was an analogue video tape standard developed by the Electronic Industries Association of Japan that became widely available in 1970.

It used 1/2-inch tape on 7-inch reels providing 60 minutes of recording time (5-inch reels were also available for portable video tape recorders offering 30 minutes).

Initially offering black and white, and later colour recording, the tape could be played on different models and brands of video tape recorder (previously video tape

standards were proprietary and varied between different brands and even different models).

EIAJ-1 paved the way for non-professional video recording to become more affordable and widespread, with many businesses, schools, government agencies, hospitals, and even some consumers adopting the format in the early 1970s. Some of the first public-access television stations that went on the air in that same era also used EIAJ-1 extensively, due to its portability, low cost, and versatility.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 68

SIMILAR FORMATS: Betamax (1978 – 1988) VHS (Video Home System) (1977 – late 2000s) Sony EV 1-inch open reel video tape (1964 – early 1970s) V-Cord (1972 – late 1970s)

69

VIDEO / DISC

LaserDisc Date introduced: 1983 – 2001

Dimensions: 300 x 300 x 1 mm

Replaced by: VHS/Betamax

Storage Capacity: 120 min

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: MCA and Philips

LaserDisc was the first optical videodisc format. MCA and Philips demonstrated a laser videodisc in 1972, and it was initially marketed in 1978 in the US as MCA DiscoVision, with the first release being ‘Jaws’.

From 1980, it became known as LaserDisc, although the official name of the format was LaserVision until the early 1990s. It was released in Japan in 1981, and finally reached Europe in 1983. The technologies and concepts behind LaserDisc are the foundation for later optical disc formats, including Compact Disc, DVD, and Blu-ray.

The most common size of LaserDisc was 30 cm, allowing for up to 60 minutes per side. This is made up of two single-sided aluminum discs layered in plastic. The spiral track of a 30cm LaserDisc is

42 miles long. After one side was finished playing, a disc has to be flipped over in order to continue watching a movie, and some titles fill two or more discs. A number of 20cm LaserDiscs were also produced, and these ‘EP’ sized discs were often used for music video compilations.

There were also 12 cm CD-Video discs, and Video Single Discs. A CD-Video carried up to five minutes of LaserDisc video content (usually a music video), and up to 20 minutes of digital audio CD tracks.

Video Single Discs carried only video, and were only popular in Japan.

LaserDisc was also adapted for data storage, such as for the BBC Domesday Project (as an LV-ROM) and for computer games on the Pioneer LaserActive (as an LD-ROM).

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 70

SIMILAR FORMATS: LaserDisc EP (1983 – 2001) Video CD (1993 – 2000s) Compact Disc (1983 – ) HD DVD (2006 – 2008)

71

VIDEO / DISC

Blu-ray Disc Date introduced: 2006 -

Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 1.2 mm

Replaced by: -

Storage Capacity: 25 to 50 GB

Obsolecence: In use

Created by: Blu-ray Association

Blu-ray Disc is an optical disk format for high-definition video. The standard was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (a consortium of companies, including Sony) and was released in 2006.

The discs themselves are the same size as DVD (120mm), but are capable of storing 25 GB per layer, with dual-layer discs being the industry standard for movies on Blu-ray Disc. Mini Blu-ray Discs (80mm) are also available, similar to MiniDVD. Information is stored at a much higher density than DVD due to the use of blue lasers.

From its introduction until 2008, Bluray competed with HD-DVD, which was launched a few months prior to Blu-ray. By as early as January 2007,

Blu-ray was outselling HD-DVD, helped by Sony including Blu-ray Disc support in the PlayStation 3.

As well as motion pictures, Blu-ray is used for distributing games for consoles such the Sony PlayStation 3 and 4, and the Xbox One, and recorable (BD-R) and rewritable versions (BD-RE) are also available for data storage. In 2013, High Fidelity Pure Audio was launched, using audio-only Blu-ray Discs.

Blu-ray Disc titles usually ship in packages similar to but slightly smaller than a standard DVD case, with the format prominently displayed across the top of the case.

Some Blu-ray Discs come packaged with a DVD version of the film, as well as digital copies that can be played on computers.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 72

SIMILAR FORMATS: HD DVD (2006 – 2008) High Fidelity Pure Audio (2013 – ) Super Audio CD (1999 – ) Universal Media Disk (2004 – 2014)

73

VIDEO / DISC

DVD-Video Date introduced: 1998 -

Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 1.2 mm

Replaced by: Blu-ray

Storage Capacity: 4.7 to 9.4 GB

Obsolecence: In use

Created by: P., S., T. and P.*

DVD-Video is a digital optical disc storage format for video playback, developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic*. It was initially available in Japan in 1995, and reached Europe in 1998. The first movie to be released on the new DVD-Video format was Twister, which also happened to be the last film released on HD-DVD. In 1993, two new optical disc video formats were being developed, Multimedia Compact Disc (MMCD), backed by Philips and Sony, and the Super Density (SD) disc, supported by a number of other manufacturers. Eventually, a joint standard was agreed.

ubiquitous VHS as it produced superior picture and sound quality, could provide interactivity, and the storage capacity allowed for extras or bonus features such as audio commentaries, deleted scenes and trailers. Players were also cheaper to manufacture than complex video tape machines.

Each DVD-Video disc contains one or more region codes, denoting the area(s) of the world in which distribution and playback are intended. The commercial DVD player specification dictates that a player must only play discs that contain its region code but in practice, many DVD players allow playback of any disc, or can be modified to do so.

Movie distributors adopted the DVD-Video format to replace the

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 74

SIMILAR FORMATS: Video CD (1993 – 2000s) HD DVD (2006 – 2008) Compact Disc (1983 – ) DIVX (Digital Video Express) (1998 – 1999)

75

U

D

POPULARITY

8 4 6

A

1 8 5 0

1 8 6 0

1 8 7 0

Piano roll (1883 – 2008) Music box disc (1886 – ) Brown wax cylinder (1880s - 1906) Wire recording (1898 – 1960s) 10-inch 78 rpm record (1901 – 1960) Gold-Moulded Records (1902 – 1912) 12-inch 78 rpm record (1903 – 1950s) Gramophone postcard (1903 – 1970s) Edison Disc Record / Diamond Disc (1912 – 1929) Blue Amberol Records (1912 – 1929) 8-inch 78rpm record (1920s – 1930s) Electrical Transcription Disc (late 1920s – 1980s) Open reel tape (1930s – 1980s)

76

1 8 8 0

1 8 9 0

Voice-O-Graph (1940 – 1960s) Cardboard record (1940s – 1980s) SoundScriber (1945 – 1960s) Dictabelt (1947 – 1980) Voicewriter (late 1940s – 1960s) 10-inch LP (1948 – 1980s) 12-inch LP (1948 – ) Coloured vinyl record (1949 – ) 7-inch single (1949 – ) Tefifon (1950 – 1960s) Flexi-disk (1950s – ) Highway Hi-Fi (1956 – 1959) RCA Sound Tape Cartridge (1958-1964) Seeburg Background Music System (1959 – 1986)

1 9 0 0

1 9 1 0

Fidelipac (1959 – late 1990s) Magnabelt (1961 – 1972) Echo-matic II (1962 – 1970s) 4-track (Stereo-Pak) (1962 – 1970) Compact Cassette (1963 – 2000s) Grundig EN3 (1964 – 1970s) 8-Track (Stereo 8) (1964 – 1988) Music cassette (Musicassette) (1965 – 2003) PlayTape (1966 – 1970) Hip Pocket Record / Pocket Disc (1967 – 1969) Mini-Cassette (1967 -) Quadraphonic open reel tape (Q4) (1969 – mid 1970s) Endless loop Compact Cassette (1969 – 1990s)

1 9 2 0

1 9 3 0

D

1 9 4 0

I

1 9 5 0

1 9 6 0

Microcassette (1969 -) Picture disc vinyl record (1970 – ) Quadraphonic 8-Track (Q8) (1970 – 1978) Compact Cassette Type II (1970 – 2000s) Steno-Cassette (1971 – ) Quadraphonic Sound (QS) (1972 – 1978) CD-4 (Compatible Discrete 4) / Quadradisc (1972 – 1979) Audiopak (1972 – 1990s) 10-inch single (1970s – ) 12-inch single (1973 – ) Compact Cassette Type III (mid 1970s – 1980s) Elcaset (1976 – 1980)

O

1 9 7 0

1 9 8 0

Compact Cassette Type IV (1979 – late 1990s) Shaped 7-inch single (1980s -) Cassette single (1980 – 2000s) Compact Disc (1983 -) CD single (1985 – ) Picocassette (Dictasette) (1985 -) Scotchcart / Scotchcart II (mid 1980s – late 1990s) CD+G (CD+Graphics) (1986 – ) Digital Audio Tape (DAT) (1987 – 2005) Mini CD single (1988 – 1990s) 9-inch single (1990 – 2007) Compact Disc Digital Audio Recordable (CD-R Audio) (1990 -) NT (1992 – late 1990s)

1 9 9 0

2 0 0 0

2 0 1 0

Digital Compact Cassette (1992 – 1996) MiniDisc (1992 – 2013) Super Audio CD (SACD) (1999 – ) DVD-Audio (2000 -) DataPlay (2002 – mid 2000s) Hi-MD (2004 – 2011) DualDisc (2005 – 2009) USB flash drive (2006 – ) microSD card (2007 – late 2000s) slotMusic (2008 – 2012) High Fidelity Pure Audio (2013 – )

77

0

5

AUDIO / DISC

Long Play Record (LP) Date introduced: 1948 –

Dimensions: 30 x 30 x 0.8 mm

Replaced by: Cassete Tape

Storage Capacity: 3 to 45 min

Obsolecence: Extinct*

Created by: Columbia Records

LP records are made of vinyl (either virgin or recycled) and together with a playing speed of 33⅓ rpm and the use of microgrooves, allow for a playing time of around 45 minutes. Previously, 78 rpm records had a playing time of just around 3-4 minutes per side, so an ‘album’ of records was sold as a set, and this name continued to describe a collection of songs on a single disc.

Each side of an LP contains a single continuous groove, with an average length of 460 m.

LP records are generally 12 inches in diameter, but 10 inch LPs have also been produced at different times.

The amount of vinyl in an LP is generally 130 g, but some records were produced with less (sometimes as little as 90 g). Modern high-fidelity LPs tend to use more, such as 180 g.

Generally LPs are pressed on black vinyl, but coloured vinyl and picture discs (with a card sandwiched between two clear sides of vinyl) have been produced, as have shaped vinyl and even neon vinyl.

By as early as 1952, LPs represented 16.7% of unit sales, rising to 24.4% in 1958 (by then, most of the remainder was 45 rpm singles, 78 rpm only representing 2.1%).

The LP had no serious competitors for long-playing recordings until the 1970s when the Compact Cassette improved in quality, and then in the 1980s with the introduction of the Compact Disc. LPs ceased to be a mainstream format in the early 1990s, but continue to be produced in small but increasing numbers.covered to allow later recording.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 78

SIMILAR FORMATS: 7-inch single (1949 – ) Coloured vinyl record (1949 – ) 10-inch LP (1948 – 1980s) Electrical Transcription Disc (late 1920s – 1980s)

79

AUDIO / TAPE

Compact Cassette Date introduced: 1963 – 2000s

Dimensions: 102 x 63.5 x 10 mm

Replaced by: Compact Disc - CD

Storage Capacity: 60/90/120 min.

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: Norelco (Philips)

Compact Cassette (also known simply as cassette tape or tape) was a magnetic tape cassette format for audio, introduced by Philips in 1963.

Compact Cassettes had two or four tracks (for stereophonic sound) and could be played in both directions.

On stereo cassettes, the two channels were adjacent to each other, making them compatible with mono-players and vice versa. Cassette tape was 3.81mm wide (often given as 4mm or ⅛ inch), and moved at 4.76 cm/s (1⅞ ips).

Different magnetic coatings were used, the original being ferric oxide (usually referred to as ‘normal’ or Type I). Chromium dioxide was introduced soon afterwards (usually referred to as ‘chrome’ or Type II), followed for a short time by a mixture

of ferric-oxide and chromium dioxide (ferro-chrome or Type III) and later, pure metal particles were used (referred to as ‘metal’ or Type IV).

Notches on top of the cassette shell indicated the type of tape within.

Type I cassettes had only write-protect notches, Type II had an additional pair next to the write protection ones, and Type IV (metal) had a third set in the middle of the cassette shell. These allowed later highend cassette decks to detect the tape type automatically and select the proper bias and equalization.

All cassettes had a write protection tab that could be broken off to prevent accidental re-recording. By using a piece of adhesive tape, these could be covered to allow later recording.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 80

SIMILAR FORMATS: Mini-Cassette (1967 – ) Steno-Cassette (1971 – ) Endless loop Compact Cassette (1969 – 1990s) Music cassette (1965 – 2003)

81

AUDIO / DISC

MiniDisc (MD) Date introduced: 1992 – 2013

Dimensions: 71.5 x 68 x 4.8 mm

Replaced by: Compact Disc - CD

Storage Capacity: 305 MB

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: Sony

MiniDisc was a magneto-optical disc format for audio, introduced by Sony in 1992.

MiniDisc, along with the Digital Compact Cassette released the same year, was intended to be a replacment for the Compact Cassette.

Sony’s previous attempt to replace the Compact Cassette was Digital Audio Tape (DAT) but this had failed in the consumer market.

MiniDiscs were very popular in Japan but made a limited impact elsewhere. A smaller number of pre-recorded albums were available than other formats, and after around 1995 it faced competition from other recordable formats such as the CD-R.

An incompatible varient for data storage, MD Data, was introduced in 1993 but failed. Later, Hi-MD introduced higher capacity disks, could be used for data and audio, and was compatible with MiniDisc, however Hi-MD itself was discontinued in 2011.

The disc itself is housed in a cartridge with a shutter, and can be recordable (blank) or pre-recorded.

Capacities ranged from 60 minutes to 74 or 80 minutes. Data is read to a memory buffer to prevent skipping except under extreme conditions.

The last MiniDisc players were sold in 2013.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 82

SIMILAR FORMATS: Hi-MD (2004 – 2011) Compact Disc (1983 – ) Super Audio CD (1999 – ) MD Data (1993 – early 2000s)

83

AUDIO / DISC

CD-Digital Audio Date introduced: 1983 –

Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 1.2 mm

Replaced by: -

Storage Capacity: 640 to 700 MB

Obsolecence: In use

Created by: Sony and Philips

Compact Disc (Compact Disc Digital Audio or CD) is a digital optical disc format for audio playback, released commercially in Japan in late 1982 (followed by Europe in early 1983). It developed out of work by Sony and Philips, and is an evolution of the earlier LaserDisc format. The first standard (known as the Red Book CDDA standard) was published in 1980.

Philips contributed the general manufacturing process, based on video LaserDisc technology. Philips also contributed eight-to-fourteen modulation (EFM), which offers a certain resilience to defects such as scratches and fingerprints, while Sony contributed the error-correction method, CIRC.

A standard CD has a diameter of 120 millimetres (4.7 in) and can hold up to 74 or 80 minutes. The initial capacity of 74 minutes was reportedly specified by Sony executive Norio Ohga so as to be able to contain the entirety of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on one disc. A CD is 1.2 millimetres thick, and weighs 15–20 grams. Scanning velocity is approximately 500 rpm at the inside of the disc, and approximately 200 rpm at the outside edge (a disc played from beginning to end slows down during playback).

The first album to be released on CD was Billy Joel’s 52nd Street, which reached the market alongside Sony’s CDP-101 CD player on 1 October 1982 in Japan.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 84

SIMILAR FORMATS: Compact Disc-Recordable (CD-R) (1990 – ) CD single (1985 – ) Compact Disc (1983 – ) Super Audio CD (1999 – )

85

AUDIO / SOLID STATE

slotMusic Date introduced: 2008 – 2012

Dimensions: 15 x 11 x 1 mm

Replaced by: N/A

Storage Capacity: 2 GB to 128 GB

Obsolecence: Extinct

Created by: SanDisk

slotMusic was a solid-state memory card format for audio, based on microSD and introduced by SanDisk in 2008 to replace its previous Gruvi microSD format.

Music was stored in MP3 format, without digital rights management, and the card could also contain images and video content. Users could use the cards as standard microSD cards, and remove or add files as necessary.

slotMusic cards could be used in mobile phones or other devices with microSD slots, or in SanDisk’s own Sansa music player.

Only a small number of albums were released on slotMusic, and as of 2012, it was no longer promoted on the SanDisk website.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 86

SIMILAR FORMATS: microSD audio (2007 – late 2000s) microSD (2005 – ) Secure Digital (1999 – ) Memory Stick Micro (M2) (2006 – )

87

I

POPULARITY

8 4 6

F

1 8 5 0

1 8 6 0

1 8 7 0

Magic lantern (1700s – 1940s) Photographic plate (1851 – 1990s) Microfilm (1839 – ) 120 film (1901 – )

88

1 8 8 0

1 8 9 0

127 film (1912 – 1970s) 9.5mm film (1922 – 1960) 16mm film (1923 – ) 135 film (1934 – )

1 9 0 0

1 9 1 0

View-Master (1939 – ) Filmstrip (1940s – 1980s) Slide carousel (1950s – 2000s) Microfiche (1961 – 2000s)

1 9 2 0

1 9 3 0

L

1 9 4 0

1 9 5 0

M

1 9 6 0

126 film (1963 – 1988) Super 8 (1965 – ) Tape-slide set (1960s – 1980s) Talking View-Master (1970 – 1981)

1 9 7 0

1 9 8 0

1 9 9 0

2 0 0 0

2 0 1 0

110 film (1972 – 1990s) Disc film (1982 – 1988) Advanced Photo System (APS) (1996 – 2004)

89

0

5

Film is a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film base coated on one side with a gelatin emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of the crystals determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film.

The emulsion will gradually darken if left exposed to light, but the process is too slow and incomplete to be of any practical use.

Instead, a very short expo-

90

sure to the image formed by a camera lens is used to produce only a very slight chemical change, proportional to the amount of light absorbed by each crystal. This creates an invisible latent image in the emulsion, which can be chemically developed into a visible photograph.

In addition to visible light, all films are sensitive to X-rays and high-energy particles. Most are at least slightly sensitive to invisible ultraviolet (UV) light. Some special-purpose films are

sensitive into the infrared (IR) region of the spectrum.

In black-and-white photographic film there is usually one layer of silver salts. When the exposed grains are developed, the silver salts are converted to metallic silver, which blocks light and appears as the black part of the film negative. Color film has at least three sensitive layers. Dyes, which adsorb to the surface of the silver salts, make the crystals sensitive to dif-

ferent colors. Typically the blue-sensitive layer is on top, followed by the green and red layers. During development, the exposed silver salts are converted to metallic silver, just as with black-and-white film.

But in a color film, the by-products of the development reaction simultaneously combine with chemicals known as color couplers that are included either in the film itself or in the developer solution to form colored dyes.

Because the by-prod-

ucts are created in direct proportion to the amount of exposure and development, the dye clouds formed are also in proportion to the exposure and development. Following development, the silver is converted back to silver salts in the bleach step. It is removed from the film in the fix step. Fixing leaves behind only the formed color dyes, which combine to make up the colored visible image. Later color films, like Kodacolor II, have as many as 12 emul-

sion layers with upwards of 20 different chemicals in each layer.

Due to film photography’s long history of widespread use, there are now around one trillion pictures on photographic film or photographic paper in the world, enough to cover an area of around ten thousand square kilometres (4000 square miles), about half the size of Wales.

91

FILM

Microfilm Date introduced: 1839 –

Dimensions: 89 x 89 x 35 mm

Replaced by: -

Storage Capacity: Various

Obsolecence: In use

Created by: Eastman Kodak

Microfilm is 16 or 35mm film, usually unperforated, containing microreproductions (normally about one twenty-fifth of the original size) of images such as documents. Images are usually provided as black and white negatives, but positive images and colour are also used.

The standard length for roll film is 30.48 m (100 ft)for 35mm rolls, and 100 ft, 130 ft and 215 feet for 16mm rolls. One roll of 35 mm film may carry 600 images of large engineering drawings or 800 images of broadsheet newspaper pages. 16 mm film may carry 2,400 images of letter sized images as a single stream of micro images along the film set so

that lines of text are parallel to the sides of the film or 10,000 small documents, perhaps cheques or betting slips, with both sides of the originals set side by side on the film.

Microphotography was first used in 1839 by John Benjamin Dancer, and microfilm saw military use in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 as a means of allowing pigeons to carry dispatches in compressed form.

Unlike digital media, the format requires no software to decode the data stored thereon, but the images are usually too small to read with the naked eye and requires magnification to be read.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 92

SIMILAR FORMATS: 120 film (1901 – ) Piano roll (1883 – 2008) Photographic plate (1851 – 1990s) Punched tape (1846 – 1980s)

93

FILM

120 Film Date introduced: 1901 –

Dimensions: 31 x 60 x 31 mm

Replaced by: 135 Film

Storage Capacity: 3 to 16 Exposures

Obsolecence: Extinct in the wild

Created by: Kodak

120 is a still photography roll film format introduced by Kodak for their Brownie No. 2 camera in 1901.

Originally intended as an amateur format, it is still in use by both professionals and amateur enthusiasts, despite being superseded by 135 film. It was the most popular film format in the 1960s, and because of the larger negative size, provides better quality images than 135.

tween 76 and 84cm in length, and 61mm wide, with a backing paper to protect the film and provide frame numberings for different size images. The number of exposures available depended on the size of the images chosen, which could be anything from 6cm x 4.5cm up to 6cm x 24cm depending on the camera.

220 film, introduced in 1965, has no backing paper and therefore offers twice the number of exposures.

120 is a medium format film, on an open spool, A typical film is be-

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 94

SIMILAR FORMATS: 127 film (1912 – 1970s) 135 film (1934 – ) Microfilm (1839 – ) 16mm film (1923 – )

95

FILM

135 film Date introduced: 1934 –

Dimensions: 25 x 38 x 25 mm

Replaced by: Solid State media

Storage Capacity: 12 to 36 Exposures

Obsolecence: Extinct in the wild

Created by: Kodak

135 is a photographic film format, using a single-use cartridges of 35mm film. The designation was introduced

by Kodak in 1934 for use in its Kodak Retina camera, and quickly grew in popularity, surpassing formats like 120, 126, 110 and APS and remains popular today despite digital photography.

35mm film was used in still photography before this time, but had to be loaded by the photographer into reusable cassettes in a darkroom.

exposed, but in some cameras (particularly disposable models) the film is unwound fully to begin with and exposed in reverse order so there is no need to rewind at the end.

135 cameras can be loaded in daylight as the film is contained in a light-tight metal cartridge. In most cameras, the film is wound onto a spool as the film is used and rewound into the cartridge once fully

Despite the popularity of digital photography, 135 SLRs, compact point-and-shoot cameras, and single-use cameras continue to be built and sold, and 135 film is still readily available.

Negative size is 36mm x 24mm, and this size is still used by digital camera image sensors. The half-frame format (18mm x 24mm) had some success in the 1960s, and some cameras have used different negative sizes.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 96

SIMILAR FORMATS: 120 film (1901 – ) 127 film (1912 – 1970s) 16mm film (1923 – ) Microfilm (1839 – )

97

FILM

View-Master Date introduced: 1949 –

Dimensions: 90 x 90 x 1 mm

Replaced by: -

Storage Capacity: 14 Pictures

Obsolecence: In use

Created by: Sawyers Inc

View-Master is a format for viewing still colour photographs in stereo vision, and was first introduced in 1939

by Sawyers Inc. Each View-Master reel contains seven pairs of stereoscopic colour film images mounted in a cardboard disc, which when viewed together in a View-Master viewer combine to give a 3D image. Early reels contained images of tourist attractions and were intended as an alternative to the scenic postcard. They were also used for US military training during WWII.

people to make their own reels. This was discontinued ten years later.

In 1966, Sawyers was acquired by GAF and this saw a move away from scenic views towards reels aimed at children containing cartoons and images from television series. From 1970 to 1997, there were versions of Talking View-Masters which included audio as well as images.

Despite 25 different View-Master viewer models and over 1.5 billion reels sold, the basic design stayed the same and every reel will work in every viewer.

In 1952, a View-Master Personal Stereo Camera was introduced to allow

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 98

SIMILAR FORMATS: Talking View-Master (1970 – 1981) 120 film (1901 – ) Microfilm (1839 – ) 135 film (1934 – )

99

FILM

Super 8 Date introduced: 1965 –

Dimensions: Various (3 to 7 in)

Replaced by: Video Tape

Storage Capacity: 3 to 32 Min.

Obsolecence: Extinct in the wild

Created by: Eastman Kodak

Super 8 is a film format introduced

by Eastman Kodak in 1965 as an improvement on standard 8mm film.

The perforations are smaller than previous 8mm film, and this allowed an oxide strip for magnetic sound recording, which was introduced in 1973.

The blank film comes in plastic lightproof cartridges containing coaxial supply and take-up spools loaded with 50 feet (15 m) of film, with 72 frames per foot, enough for 3 minutes and 20 seconds of continuous filming at 18 frames per second for amateur use. Coded notches cut into the cartridge exterior allowed

the camera to recognize the film speed automatically.

Super 8 was intended for the creation of amateur films, but condensed versions of popular cinema releases were available on Super 8 until the mid-1980s for projection at home. These were generally edited to fit onto a 200 ft (61 m) or 400 ft (120 m) reel, and some had magnetic sound.

Although Super 8 has largely been superseded by video tape, it is still use for some film making, music videos, and special sequences for television when seeking to imitate the look of old home movies, or create a stylishly grainy look.

MEDIA CAPACITY COMPARISON FIELD 100

SIMILAR FORMATS: 16mm film (1923 – ) 120 film (1901 – ) 135 film (1934 – ) Microfilm (1839 – )

101

I

N

PUNCHED MEDIA Punched tape Piano roll Punched card Aperture card ROM CARTRIDGES/CARDS Magnavox Odyssey Channel F System II Coleco Telstar Arcade RCA Studio II Atari VCS / 2600 Interton VC 4000 Bally Astrocade Philips Videopac / Magnavox Odyssey Rowtron / Teleng T.C.S Milton Bradley Microvision Texas Instruments TI-99/4 / TI-99/4A Mattel IntelliVision / IntelliVision II Atari 400 / 800 / XL / XE Epoch Cassette Vision Commodore VIC-20 Dragon 32 Emerson Arcadia 2001 ColecoVision Atari 5200 SuperSystem Commodore 64 GCE / Milton Bradley Vectrex Mattel Aquarius Acorn Electron Casio ROM Pack MSX Nintendo Famicom IBM PCjr Epoch Super Cassette Vision Sega Master System ‘Sega Card’ Sega Master System Nintendo Entertainment System Atari 7800 ProSystem NEC TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine ‘HuCard’

102

Atari Lynx Amstrad GX4000 Sega Mega Drive Nintendo Game Boy SNK Neo Geo AES Sega Game Gear Psion Series 3 Solid State Disk Super NES Atari Jaguar Sega 32X Nintendo 64 SNK Neo Geo Pocket / Pocket Colour Handspring Springboard Bandai WonderSwan Nintendo Game Boy Advance Nintendo DS / DS Lite / DSi SOLID STATE Psion Organiser Datapak PCMCIA / PC Card Psion Series 3 Solid State Disk Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) CompactFlash (Type I) Miniature Card SmartMedia Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) mini-size MultiMedia Card Memory Stick Handspring Springboard expansion module Secure Digital (SD) USB flash drive xD-Picture Card Memory Stick Duo miniSD RS-MMC (Reduced Size MultiMedia Card) microSD Memory Stick Micro (M2) SIM micro-size SIM nano-size

D

D

E TAPE LEO tape DECtape Magnetic stripe card 9-track tape QIC Data Cartridge DC100 Compact Cassette QIC Minicartridge DECtape II ZX Microdrive Wafadrive IBM 3480 Digital Linear Tape (DLT) Streamer cassette Digital Data Storage (DDS) 8mm / Data8 SD1 Ditto QIC-Wide Mammoth / Mammoth-2) Digital Tape Format (DTF) IBM Magstar 3590 Travan QIC-EXtra (QIC EX) Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT) IBM Magstar MP 3570 VXA Advanced Digital Recording (ADR) Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Super DLT Super Advanced Intelligent Tape DAT 160 / 320 DISK/DISC 8-inch floppy disk Control Data Corporation 9877 Digital Equipment Corporation RK07 5.25-inch minifloppy disk Olivetti minidisc

X Floppy ROM 2-inch Floppy disk (Video Floppy) 3-inch Compact Floppy disk3.5-inch microfloppy disk (DS /DD) Iomega Bernoulli disk 8-inch Apple FileWare / Twiggy disk 5.25-inch magneto-optical disk Iomega Bernoulli disk 5.25-inch CD-ROM LV-ROM 3.5-inch microfloppy disk (HD) SyQuest 5.25-inch (44/88/200MB) 3.5-inch microfloppy (ED) CD-i (Compact Disc Interactive) 3.5-inch magneto-optical disk Compact Disc-Recordable (CD-R) Floptical LD-ROM SyQuest 3.5-inch (105/270MB) MD Data (Mini Disc Data) Iomega Zip Phase-change Dual (PD) disk SyQuest EZ135 Iomega Jaz SyQuest EzFlyer Syquest SyJet SyQuest SparQ SuperDisk Compact Disc-ReWritable (CD-RW) Caleb UHD144 / it drive Castlewood Orb HiFD (High capacity Floppy) DVD-RAM Iomega Clik! / PocketZip Microdrive GD-ROM DVD-RW Iomega Zip U250 DVD+RW DVD+R

103

Iomega Rev Hi-MD Universal Media Disc HD-DVD-R CD-ROM postage stamps VIDEO EV 1-inch open reel video tape 1/2-inch EIAJ open reel video tape Cartrivision Video Cassette Recording (VCR) U-matic U-matic S Television Electronic Disc (TeD) 1-inch Type C VHS (Video Home System) Betamax Video Compact Cassette Compact Video Cassette Capacitance Electronic Disk (CED) Betacam / Betacam SP Compact VHS (VHS-C) Video High Density (VHD) Video single LaserDisc LaserDisc EP Video8 MII D1 CD-Video S-VHS D2 Hi8 Digital Betacam Video CD D5 /D5 HD MiniDV Betacam SX

104

DVD-Video DIVX (Digital Video Express) Digital 8 MicroMV D-Theater Personal Video Disc (PVD) Flexplay Universal Media Disk DualDisc HD DVD Blu-ray Disc AUDIO Piano roll Music box disc Brown wax cylinder Wire recording 10-inch 78 rpm record Gold-Moulded Records 12-inch 78 rpm record Gramophone postcard Edison Disc Record / Diamond Disc Blue Amberol Records 8-inch 78rpm record Electrical Transcription Disc Open reel tape Voice-O-Graph Cardboard record SoundScriber Dictabelt Voicewriter 10-inch LP 12-inch LP Coloured vinyl record 7-inch single Tefifon Flexi-disk Highway Hi-Fi

RCA Sound Tape Cartridge Seeburg Background Music System Fidelipac Magnabelt Echo-matic II 4-track (Stereo-Pak) Compact Cassette Grundig EN3 8-Track (Stereo 8) Music cassette (Musicassette) PlayTape Hip Pocket Record / Pocket Disc Mini-Cassette Quadraphonic open reel tape (Q4) Endless loop Compact Cassette Microcassette Picture disc vinyl record Quadraphonic 8-Track (Q8) Compact Cassette Type II Steno-Cassette Quadraphonic Sound (QS) CD-4 (Compatible Discrete 4) Audiopak 10-inch single 12-inch single Compact Cassette Type III Elcaset Compact Cassette Type IV Shaped 7-inch single Cassette single (Cassingle) Compact Disc CD single Picocassette (Dictasette) Scotchcart / Scotchcart II CD+G (CD+Graphics) Digital Audio Tape (DAT) Mini CD single 9-inch single

Compact Disc Digital Audio Recordable (CD-R Audio) NT Digital Compact Cassette MiniDisc Super Audio CD (SACD) DVD-Audio DataPlay Hi-MD DualDisc USB flash drive microSD card slotMusic High Fidelity Pure Audio FILM Magic lantern Photographic plate Microfilm 120 film 127 film 9.5mm film 16mm film 135 film View-Master Filmstrip Slide carousel Microfiche 126 film Super 8 Tape-slide set Talking View-Master 110 film Disc film Advanced Photo System (APS)

105

106