How Computers Work, Ninth Edition

Chapter 12. How Little Things Make Drives Faster and Bigger

THE common image of technological breakthroughs—the wild-haired scientist rising from his test tubes and proclaiming, “Eureka!”—is exciting when it does occur, but that rarely actually happens. Most technological advances are made less by momentous discoveries than by everyday plodding toward incremental gains.

The fundamental technology in personal computers has not changed in the quarter of a century PCs have been changing our lives. Despite the hyping of Matrix-like direct links to computers, we’re still using keyboards and mice. Fifteen years ago I wrote about how computer data would ...