Multimedia systems test limits of storage capacity. (Focus: Computers and Software)

As the information society grows, data managers are increasingly faced with a staggering problem: How do we store all this stuff?

Further contributing to a data manager's information headache is the sophistication, power and flavor of the software applications employed by users. New graphical operating systems and the incorporation into their applications of video, sound and handwriting (which consume massive amounts of disk space) are overheating the demand for storage hardware.

One way storage makers are meeting this demand is through a technology called RAID, or Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.

RAID has been around since the mid-1980s, when it was the subject of intensive research at the University of California at Berkeley. But it wasn't until recent developments in shrinking circuit boards through very large scale integration (VLSI), and a concurrent reduction in the size and cost of fixed disks, …