Hard drives radically changed the way the world stores data. And for a brief period, at least one was a tourist attraction as well.

Crown Zellerbach, at one time a major paper producer in San Francisco, was the first company to install a RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) machine, the first IBM computer with a then-newfangled piece of storage technology called a hard drive, according to Jim Porter, president of analysis firm Disk/Trend. The RAMAC--officially announced on Sept. 13, 1956--weighed 1 ton and stored 5MB of data on 50 spinning platters, 24 inches in diameter.

A lot has changed in the last 50 years. Manufacturers now sell drives that hold 750GB, or 150,000 times more data than the RAMAC, but they weigh only a few ounces and measure just 3.5 inches across. Drives that can hold a terabyte will be announced late this year or early next year.

"The hard drive has advanced about 65 million times in areal density since the RAMAC, and we're still, in my estimation, three orders of magnitude from any truly fundamental limits," said Mark Kryder, chief technical officer of drive maker Seagate Technology.

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