David A. Thompson | |
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![]() Dave Thompson, 1990 | |
Born | North Dakota, USA | December 17, 1940
Alma mater | Carnegie Institute of Technology |
Occupation | Engineer |
Employer | IBM |
Awards |
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David A. Thompson is an American electrical engineer and inventor with a long career at IBM. He is noted for his many contributions to magnetic recording technology. Thompson was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for the invention and development of the thin-film inductive head [1] and the magnetoresistive read head. [2] These heads are now ubiquitous in all hard-disk drives and magnetic tape recorders. [3] [4]
Before the commercialization of thin-film recording heads, the data storage industry used ferrite recording heads. A very important attribute of thin-film recording heads was the ability to fabricate such heads with photolithographic methods, which enabled far better dimensional precision than what had been possible with the cutting, grinding and polishing methods employed for making ferrite heads. Thin-film heads were first commercialized in 1980 in the IBM 3370. [5]
The most important value of the thin-film recording head was realized following invention and development of the magnetoresistive read head. This combination enabled the industry’s first dual-element recording head, with a thin-film inductive element optimized for writing data overlaid with thin-film magnetoresistive element optimized for reading data. [6] These heads were first commercialized in the IBM 3480 tape system in 1984 and in the IBM 9345 HDD in 1990. [7]
Thompson's innovations head technology have enabled and maintained the exponential increases in data storage areal-density (and decreasing cost per Byte) that have characterized tape-drives and hard disk drives for the last 50 years or more - sometimes referred to as Kryder's Law.[ citation needed ]
In 1965, Thompson became an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Carnegie Institute of Technology. His research work was mainly in the areas of microwaves and magnetic thin films.
In 1968, Thompson joined the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York to join a team led by Hsu Chang. Thompson worked with Luby Romankiw and coauthored a key patent on the design of a thin-film inductive head that would go on to replace existing ferrite head technology. [1] Chris Bajorek joined the team in 1971. The team had started looking at magnetoresistance and on sensors based on this effect. The first applications were related to reading data in bubble memory and on magnetic stripes. The latter did become a commercial success and hand-held card or stripe readers became widespread [8] Subsequently, a major breakthrough occurred when Thompson and the team developed a practical magnetoresistive read head for magnetic recording. [9] [2] These shielded heads offered much higher signal-to-noise ratio than inductive heads and became ubiquitous in tape drives (first in the IBM 3480 in 1984) and then in hard disk drives(first in the IBM 9345 "Sawmill" in 1990). [6] As a result of this work, in 1980, Thompson was named an IBM Fellow, the company’s highest technical honor. Thompson was also designated an IBM Master Inventor [10]
In 1987, Thompson moved to the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California to take up the role of Director of IBM Magnetic Recording Institute (originally established by Denis Mee). where he became director of the IBM Advanced Magnetic Recording Laboratory and director of the IBM Compact Storage Laboratory. These merged in 1991, to form the Advanced Magnetic Recording Laboratory (AMRL) which Thompson then headed. [11]
Thompson has been an active member and supporter of the IEEE Magnetics Society. He served a term as president 1993-4 [12] [13] He was also conference chairman of the first Magnetic Recording Conference (TMRC 1991). Thompson was also a founding member of the Technical Advisory Board of the Magnetics Technology Centre (became Data Storage Institute) at the National University of Singapore. He also served on the advisory board of the Data Storage Systems Center (DSSC) at Carnegie Mellon University. [10]
Thompson is author or coauthor on numerous patents and scientific papers. [14] These are focused particularly on novel designs for thin-film write [1] and read heads [2] and read heads for magnetic recording. He was also known for his prognostications on the future of magnetic recording. [15] [16]
Thompson has received numerous awards and recognition for his work in the field of magnetic recording:
Thompson grew up in North Dakota and attended Devils Lake High School. [26] He attended Carnegie Institute of Technology (now CMU) Department of Electrical Engineering. He received a bachelor's degree in 1962, a master's degree in 1963. In 1966, Thompson received a Ph.D degree supervised by Leo Finzi and Hsu Chang [9] [19] [4]
Thompson retired from IBM in 2000.[ citation needed ]
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk, is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnetic material. The platters are paired with magnetic heads, usually arranged on a moving actuator arm, which read and write data to the platter surfaces. Data is accessed in a random-access manner, meaning that individual blocks of data can be stored and retrieved in any order. HDDs are a type of non-volatile storage, retaining stored data when powered off. Modern HDDs are typically in the form of a small rectangular box.
A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic-tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and a long archival stability.
A disk read-and-write head is the small part of a disk drive which moves above the disk platter and transforms the platter's magnetic field into electric current or, vice versa, transforms electric current into magnetic field. The heads have gone through a number of changes over the years.
Drum memory was a magnetic data storage device invented by Gustav Tauschek in 1932 in Austria. Drums were widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s as computer memory.
Non-volatile memory (NVM) or non-volatile storage is a type of computer memory that can retain stored information even after power is removed. In contrast, volatile memory needs constant power in order to retain data.
Magnetic storage or magnetic recording is the storage of data on a magnetized medium. Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetisation in a magnetizable material to store data and is a form of non-volatile memory. The information is accessed using one or more read/write heads.
In 1953, IBM recognized the immediate application for what it termed a "Random Access File" having high capacity and rapid random access at a relatively low cost. After considering technologies such as wire matrices, rod arrays, drums, drum arrays, etc., the engineers at IBM's San Jose California laboratory invented the hard disk drive. The disk drive created a new level in the computer data hierarchy, then termed Random Access Storage but today known as secondary storage, less expensive and slower than main memory but faster and more expensive than tape drives.
Lubomyr Taras Romankiw is an IBM Fellow and researcher at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.
William A. Goddard was an American engineer and inventor. He earned a degree in physics from Occidental College. Before working in industry, Goddard was a high school science teacher in Los Angeles. He briefly worked in the aerospace industry for North American Aviation, Inc. before becoming an engineer at International Business Machines (IBM). His most acclaimed achievement is co-inventing along with John Lynott United States Patent 3,503,060, which is entitled “Direct Access Magnetic Disc Storage Device”. This invention claims cover modern-day hard disk drives.
Peter A. Franaszek is an American information theorist, an IEEE Fellow, a research staff member emeritus at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and a former member of the IBM Academy of Technology. He received his Sc.B. from Brown University in 1962, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1966.
John Mason "Jack" Harker was an inventor, mechanical engineer, and product and program manager who pioneered development of disk storage systems. Starting as a member of the original team that developed the first disk storage system, he went on to develop IBM Direct Access Storage products for the next 35 years. Over that time, Harker was twice director of the IBM San Jose Storage Laboratories, an IBM Fellow, and an IEEE Fellow. He retired from IBM in 1987 and died in 2013.
Yoshihiro Shiroishi was born in 1951 in Tokyo, Japan. He is a Chief Architect and Technical Advisor at the Hitachi Research & Dev. Group, Tokyo, Japan. Shiroishi was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2015 for leadership in the development of high density magnetic recording technologies and devices.
Bruce Alvin Gurney was an American physicist responsible for pioneering advances in magnetic recording. In particular, he was central to the development of the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensors first used in hard disk drives in 1997.
Charles Denis Mee was a British-American engineer, physicist, and author who was noted for his contributions in the areas of magnetic recording and data storage on hard disk drives (HDD). A large part of his career was with IBM in San Jose California. He is the author or editor of several books on magnetic recording.
Christopher Henry Bajorek is a data storage engineer noted for his leadership in developing and implementing magnetoresistive sensors into magnetic stripe readers, tape drives and hard disk drives.
Mason Lamar Williams III was an engineer and physicist, noted for his contributions in the areas of magnetic recording and data storage on hard disk drives (HDD). A large part of his career was with the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. After retiring, Williams played a major role in the restoration and demonstration of the IBM RAMAC at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California
Robert E Fontana is an engineer, physicist, and author who is noted for his contributions in the areas of magnetic recording and data storage on hard disk drives (HDD) and on digital tape recorders. His work has concentrated on developing thin film processing techniques for nano-fabrication of magnetic devices including Giant Magnetoresistance read heads now used universally in magnetic recording. Much of his career was with IBM in San Jose, California. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Michael L. Mallary is an engineer, physicist, inventor, and author who is noted for his contributions in the areas of magnetic recording and data storage on hard disk drives (HDD). His work has concentrated on developing and optimizing magnetic components to maximize data storage density. In particular, he is responsible to inventing the 'trailing-shield' write head used universally in modern HDDs. Mallary is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and recipient of the IEEE Magnetics Society Achievement Award.
Albert Smiley Hoagland had a long career on the development of hard disk drives (HDD) starting with the IBM RAMAC. From 1956 to 1984, he was with IBM in San Jose, California, and then, from 1984 to 2005, he was the director of the Institute for Information Storage Technology at Santa Clara University. He wrote the first book on Digital Magnetic Recording. Hoagland played a central role in the preservation and restoration of the IBM RAMAC now displayed at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California. He died in Portland, Oregon, on 1 October 2022.
Tu Chen 陳都 is a Taiwanese-American scientist and entrepreneur who played a central role in the development of thin-film media for computer hard disk drives. In 1993, he co-founded Komag which was subsequently purchased by Western Digital in 2007. Since his retirement in 1999, Chen has devoted himself to technological advancement in Taiwan.