Random Facts #83 · 12:16am May 6th, 2017
Just a few decades ago, a hard drive capable of holding a couple gigs of data would cost thousands, if not millions of dollars, and often they'd weigh as much or more than a full-sized household refrigerator.
There has been ongoing research to find and/or invent new ways to store increasingly large amounts of data, from storing them in additional "dimensions" using holographics discs, to using DNA to completely reencode data into an entirely organic form.
For a time, before SSDs became prevalent in ultraportable computers and devices, there existed a 1.8-inch hard drives, as well as tiny 1-inch "microdrive", which was small enough to utilize the same form factor as modern CF cards. Though they generally lasted for far more read/write cycles than CF cards themselves and other flash memory products, they were highly susceptible to shock, and broke down easily. The original iPod actually used these types of drives.
Certain models of video cards from the late 1990s and early 2000s allowed the user to add additional VRAM to the card via chips or expansion boards, thus improving performance.
A typical CPU uses its cache memory integrated onto the die itself to quickly store and swap out critical information, allowing for much heavier workloads to be processed efficiently.
I'm guessing only the government could afford those drives in mass?