History of Modern Technology : The 8 inch Floppy

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Step back in time with Professor JRod as we uncover the remarkable story of the 8-inch floppy disk – the groundbreaking invention that forever changed how we store and transport digital information.

Before cloud storage, before USB drives, even before the familiar 3.5-inch diskettes of the 1990s, there was the original 8-inch floppy disk. Born from necessity at IBM in the late 1960s, this revolutionary storage medium solved a critical problem: replacing cumbersome punch cards and tape reels with something more practical and portable. Under project leader Alan Shugart (who later founded Seagate), a dedicated team of engineers crafted the first prototypes, affectionately codenamed "Minnow."

The journey from concept to commercial success wasn't straightforward. Early challenges with dust and fingerprints damaging disks led to the ingenious solution of housing them in fabric-lined sleeves that would clean the disk surface during operation. By 1973, IBM's read-write floppy drive could store the equivalent of 3,000 punch cards on a single disk – a technological miracle that cost between $5-8 per disk. While laughably limited by today's standards (just over 1 megabyte at maximum capacity), these disks represented an exponential leap forward in portable computing.

Though the 8-inch floppy was ultimately too unwieldy for home computing, it established the blueprint for all future portable storage. From standardized connectors to formatting approaches, the DNA of these early disks lives on in everything from USB drives to cloud storage concepts. Join us for this fascinating exploration of technological evolution and discover how a simple flexible disk became the ancestor of the digital storage revolution we take for granted today. Subscribe to Technology Tap for more deep dives into the forgotten innovations that shaped our modern digital world.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome back to Technology Tap, the podcast,
where we dive into the historyand stories behind the
technology that shaped our world.
I'm your host, professor J-Rod,and today we're rewinding the
clock to the late.

(00:37):
The technology that shaped ourworld.
I'm your host, professor J-Rod,and today we're rewinding the
clock to the late 60s and early70s.
Our focus the invention of the8-inch floppy disk, the first
true portable storage mediumthat eventually led to decades
of digital innovation.

(00:58):
Before USB drives, before thecloud storage, before even the
3.5-inch disk, you mightremember, from the 70s, there
was the floppy, and the story ofthe 8-inch floppy is one of
creativity, persistence and somevery smart engineers at IBM and
beyond.
The problem IBM needed to solvethe problem where they wanted to

(01:19):
get rid of the punch cards.
So in the 1960s, when computerswere massive and expensive and
relied on punch cards ormagnetic tape reels, IBM found
that they were too bulky andslow.
So IBM's challenge finding aquick, cheap way to load
microcode into mainframes.
Their goal was to get a deviceunder 200 with the medium under

(01:41):
5.
So they tapped IBM projectleader Alan Shugart and he
assembled a team that includedDavid Noble, donald Walter,
herbert Thompson, warren Diesel,jay Nielsen and Ralph Florence.
The early prototype was the IBM23FD, codenamed the middle, so

(02:03):
named because it was smallcompared to real tapes.
Minnow specs were 8 inchesacross, 80 kilobytes, kilobytes
of storage and was read-only.
So imagine holding somethingflimsy, flexible and thin, yet
it can replace stacks of IBMpunch cards and hours of

(02:23):
operating time.
Next, making it practical, therewas a problem with the floppy
drives.
Dust and fingerprints ruinedthe disk.
The solution was to seal thedisk into a plastic sleeve lined
with fabric to wipe the surfaceclean as it spun.
Results the patents were filedin 1972 for both the disk and

(02:45):
the drive.
First real-world use was theIBM 2835 storage controller unit
and later the System 370.
Codename Middle for the floppyproject and Macro for the
writing device.
This was an era where codenameswere given separately to give

(03:05):
engineers a little humor duringthe long development nights.
By 1972, memorex launched theMemorex 650, the first
commercial read-and-write floppy.
It had 175 kilobytes ofcapacity, used hard-setter disk,
tiny holes to mark each sector.
Ibm nearly canceled their ownread-write project until Jack

(03:29):
Harker and Donald Stevenson keptit alive.
In 1973, ibm came out with the33FD, codenamed iGuard, a
read-and-write drive whichshipped with the IBM 3740 data
entry system.
It had 250 kilobits of storageand soft sector formatting.

(03:49):
It was the equivalent ofstorage.
Soft sector formatting it wasthe equivalent of 3,000 punch
cards on a floppy.
Punch cards have been aroundfor decades.
Replacing thousands of themwith one flexible disk was
amazing, and I think I'm goingto do a deep dive on the punch

(04:10):
cards once I get over the serieson floppies and USBs, which I
want to do.
Side note, I did work with the8-inch floppy.
Now, does that mean thatProfessor J Rod worked in the
60s and the 70s?
Absolutely not.
I wasn't even born during the60s, but the company that I
worked for was a little bitbehind in the technology One of

(04:31):
the first companies that I'veever worked with and they
actually had 8-inch floppies.
I remember putting them inthese old terminals back in 1990
, 1991.
So yes, I'm old, but I'm notthat old.
All right.
Sugard steps out.
Alan Sugard leaves IBM in 1973and forms Sugard Associates,

(04:51):
which later becomes Seagate.
The SA800 drive becomes theindustry standard for 8-inch
floppies.
Why Standard connectors?
Reliable operation and wideadoption by third-party
manufacturers.
This is when the floppy diskstarted spreading beyond IBM
into emerging minicomputers andlater microcomputers.

(05:14):
Think of it as the USBstandards of its days.
Once Sugar's design took off,compatibility exploded.
By the mid-70s the CPAMoperating system distributed on
8-inch floppies, but drives wereexpensive, often more than the
computers themselves.
Many small hobby computersstill rely on cassette tapes

(05:36):
until floppy costs dropped.
In 1976, the double-sidedsingle-density hold 500
kilobytes.
In 1977, the double-sideddouble-density hold up to 1.2
megabytes.
Now that's a lot.
Back then, in the late 70s, theprices were five to eight
dollars per disc, so the pricewent down.
Market projections in 1978included 135 million dollars in

(06:02):
media sales and 875 milliondollars in drives.
Then versus now, though,experiment.
Imagine playing, playing,paying 25 for a floppy disk that
held just over one meg, whenyour smartphone today holds
hundreds of gigabytes.

(06:23):
The sugar interface it had a 50pin connector, an ac spindle
motor running consistently.
The later models upgraded to DCmotors and refined pinouts.
These early engineeringdecisions created the standard
foundations for later 5.25 and3.5-inch floppies.
This was the blueprint, the DNAthat all future floppy

(06:48):
generations followed.
The 8-inch floppy was nevercustomer-friendly, too big for
home use, but it paved the wayfor the 5.25-inch floppy, which
did reach hobbyists andeventually the PC market.
It set the concept for portable, removable storage, a direct

(07:08):
ancestors to USB, sd cards andeven the idea of the cloud.
So that's the story of the8-inch floppy Born at IBM,
nurtured by engineers like AlanShugart, pushed into the market
by Memorex and eventuallyadopted as an industry standard.
It wasn't sleek, it wasn'tsmall, but it was the first step

(07:32):
toward portable storage that wetake for granted today.
I'm Professor J Rod and this hasbeen Technology Tap.
If you enjoyed this deep dive,be sure to subscribe, share the
podcast and join me next time aswe explore another piece of the
technology puzzle that shapedour lives.
Until then, keep tapping intotechnology.

(07:55):
This has been a Little Cha Chaproduction Art by Sarah Music,

(08:28):
by Joe Kim.
If you want to contact me, youcan email me at ProfessorJRod at
gmailcom and follow me onTikTok at Professor J-Rod.
So you