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From the beginnings of the computer industry, engineers have wrestled with the challenge of storing and retrieving information. Users have wanted to store more information and access it more rapidly and to do so at decreasing cost. The effectiveness with which computer and peripheral equipment manufacturers responded to these demands has been an important factor in the growth of the computer industry and has enabled users to apply computing power in a broadening range of tasks.
Information storage and retrieval capabilities of computing systems comprised semiconductor (formerly magnetic-core) memory circuits and peripheral magnetic storage and retrieval devices, including tape, rigid (hard) disk, and floppy disk drives. Although the history of each of these technologies is rich, the history of the companies that developed rigid disk drives seems to have been particularly complex and tumultuous. The rigid disk drive industry grew from a research project begun in the San Jose laboratories of International Business Machines, Inc. (IBM) in 1956 to a $15 billion industry in 1990.(1) Of the 138 firms known to have entered the industry in this period, 103 subsequently failed, and six others disappeared through acquisition or absorption by competitors.
New firms entered to lead the industry in four of its six technologically defined product generations. The demise of the leading firms of each generation seems to have been triggered by the emergence of new product architectures and of new market segments in which these architectures were used.(2) This history of the rigid disk drive industry therefore is focused on the emergence of these new technologies and markets.
This article examines those firms that design and manufacture rigid magnetic disk drives for sale in the original equipment (OE) market to computer manufacturers. Because this study's emphasis is on the interactions between technological developments and market forces in the disk drive industry, primarily the open-market disk drive activities of vertically integrated computer manufacturers such as IBM and Control Data--not their internal, intra-corporate disk drive transactions-are considered here.(3)
By 1990 rigid disk drive production was a worldwide industry populated by multinational firms with headquarters in twelve countries spanning four continents. Several produced drives outside the country where their headquarters were located; for example, Rodime, a Scottish firm, produced drives in Florida; IBM and Quantum both manufactured...