MovieChat Forums > Johnny Mnemonic (1995) Discussion > Techie discussion about storage capacity...

Techie discussion about storage capacity.

posted 16 years ago by hkp0lice
33 replies | jump to latest

I remember the first PC I bought back in 1997 had a Pentium 233Mhz MMX with 64MB of SDRAM and a western digital 4.3GB HD.

That was almost the top of the line PC available back then, so let's assume that the average HD was around 2GB in 1995?

I guess back then, imagining a 160GB HD or even 320GB of data would seem very 'futuristic' but funny enough, reality advanced faster than sci-fi.

What this got me thinking about is optical vs magnetic storage. CDs were available back in 1995 when the film was made, storing an impressive 650MB per disc, vs 2GB in the average HD (therefore, optical discs hold about 30% the data of an average HD). Compare that to now: even a double layered Blu-ray disc can only hold about 50GB of data and the average HD is easily 500GB+ which translates into less than 10% the data.

Seems like optical storage is lagging behind a lot.

[–] alchemistk91 11 years ago

I find it very disappointing how all these movies underestimate the leaps we've made in storage capacity and microchip technology, but always overestimate the biomechanics and engineering aspect of development.

I'd have loved to have seen as much focus on biotechnology and machinery as other technology over the last 20 years. Whilst the advancements they've made so far has blown me away, it is more of a visceral, instinctive appreciation when you see things like robotics, automated services, biotech because they're physical. They're made of metal, plastics and ingenuity in front of you, not this ethereal notion of vast capacities, a cloud, invisible and wireless.

I think we need another guy like Tesla who could even imagine such a jump from the path we're on now. From small, simple but powerful and efficient devices to something out of I, Robot or Minority Report. The problem is there are too many things to work on, and silicon microchips have supercharged one aspect of the tech industry, leaving all the other industries in their wake.

[–] lostn 10 years ago

I don't know why they need to store data inside a person's head. They couldn't imagine that some day there would be microSD cards the size of a thumbnail that can store this much info safely?

Also, if memory serves, what that 160GB of data was containing was a cure for some disease. I want to know why a cure would take up this many GB. What sort of data is on it? It would have to be some form of hi def uncompressed video.. in which case they should compress it and it won't take up near as much storage.

Also, a 4.3GB HDD was massive in 1997. That would have been top of the line for sure.