CompactFlash emerged in the 1990s as a solid state storage device that combined magnetic and optical technologies. It could be rewritten multiple times, unlike earlier storage technologies such as floppy disks, compact discs, and magneto-optical discs. However, CompactFlash did not become widely used due to its slow writing time and higher production costs compared to later technologies. Storage technologies have rapidly advanced from megabytes to terabytes over the decades through innovations in magnetic tape, drums, cores, hard disk drives, flash drives, and cloud storage.