Artifact essay

Where have all the floppies gone?

Long time passing...

Katherine Loughlin Summer 2016 Essay 3 - Thing (Artifact) IXDS 5403 - Media History and Theory Professor David Edwin Meyers MA Interactive Design Lindsey Wilson College

For those reading this essay who are either too young or did not join in the personal computing journey of the 1970’s into the early 2000’s, let me take you on a historical walk back in time to explore the exciting world of the “floppy disk.”

What is a floppy disk?

“A thin plastic disk coated with magnetic material, on which computer data and programs can be stored for later retrieval.”

The term “floppy” relates more to the early disks that were developed because the magnetic disk was encased in more of a flexible plastic.

Later, when the 3 1/2-inch floppy was developed, it had a rigid hard plastic cover and a small automatic metal shutter both of which made it more durable. Even though it was not flexible, it was still called a “floppy”.

a way to run applications. For example, in order for the computer to boot up, you had to have the operating system disk in the drive when you turned on the computer.

As the industry started to evolve, the floppy became a standard format for distributing software. For large software programs, it was problematic for the user because several disks were required to install the application and a disk with an issue could prevent the complete installation. For example, if your computer did not have a CD-ROM drive and you wanted to install Microsoft Office 97 Professional, you had 44, 3 1/2-inch disks to install for the program to run. They were provided in nice grouped packaging, but had to be installed in a specific order.

Why was the floppy disk needed?

The floppy disk provided a less expensive solution for data storage. Magnetic hard disks revolutionized data storage, but they were initially large and expensive. In the 1970’s and 80’s, floppies provided the primary storage for word processors and personal computers and a way to run applications. For example, in order for the computer to boot up, you had to have the operating system disk in the drive when you turned on the computer.

The floppy disk provided a less expensive solution for data storage.

Magnetic hard disks revolutionized data storage, but they were initally large and expensive. In the 1970’s and 80’s, floppies provided the primary storage for word processors and personal computers and

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What were the three main types of floppy disks?

brief or paper for class.

There were three main sizes of floppy disks sold commercially starting in the early 1970’s and are still available for purchase today.

They include the 8-inch, 5 1/4-inch and 3 1/2-inch. It is amazing what you can find online from resellers, just Google, “floppy disks for sale” and there are lots of sites to fulfill your needs. I like “Floppydisk.com” and see that the domain was created in 2002.

One of the key connections to keep in mind is that developers of the disks drives were many times also manufactures of the floppy disks. In the case of IBM, they began selling floppy disk drives in 1971 and in 1972 received patents for both the drive and floppy disk.

8-inch The 8-inch disk was developed by IBM starting in 1971 and it was actually called a “memory disk” when first released. The storage capacity of the original 8-inch read-only floppy was 80 kilobytes (KB).

Not much storage capacity based upon today’s standards, but it was based upon standards at the time. This disk had the same storage capacity of “3000 punched cards.” In the next few years both Memorex and Shugart Associates manufactured these disks.

There were other advancements in this period to increase the storage capacity of the disk up to 1 MB by 1977.

Due care of the disks was needed for a few reasons. First, issues were encountered if the magnetic data of the disk was exposed to dust when outside the computer. The dust could cause issues when introduced to the inner workings of the computer. It was important to place them in the protective sleeve when not in use. Secondly, they could be easily bent. Yes they were flexible, but also somewhat fragile.

The size of the disk was a little problematic too. Look at a piece of standard printer paper (Letter 8 1/2 x 11 inches). Imagine working with multiple disks the width of the paper in order to save a creative

The other item to note is that that early drives had read access, but not initially read/write access. This meant you could not save information on a floppy, rather the computer could only read in the information on the disk. In 1972, the first commercially available read/write floppy drive hit the market and was developed by Memorex under the leadership of Alan Shugart (who had previously worked for IBM).

Competition in the industry help fuel the change to make the disks smaller and the capacity larger.

An interesting note about the 8-inch usage happened a few months ago. The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report that indicated the need for the government to upgrade some legacy computer systems that are used to coordinate “the operational functions of the U.S. nuclear forces”. I guess there still is a thriving market for these disks.

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5 1/4-inch The 5 1/4-inch disk was developed by Shugart Associates and was sold commercially starting 1976. At the time it had storage capacity of 110KB. Within a few years the capacity was increased to 360KB, reaching 1.2 MB by 1982.

One of the driving needs for advancement of the floppy disk was coming from Wang Laboratories (Wang was developing word processing machines). It was communicated to Shugart Associates that the 8-inch floppy format was too large for his machine and too expensive. He needed a better solution.

Some of the issues encountered with the 8-inch were true here as well; the magnetic data exposure to dust if not placed in the protective sleeve, data size limitations, reliability and fragile. The 5 1/4 looked like a smaller version of the 8-inch floppy.

Near the end of the 1980’s, sales of the 5 1/4-inch were declining and the sales of the 3 1/2-inch were exceeding the 5 1/4.

3 1/2-inch The 3 1/2-inch floppy disk was developed and sold commercially under a few companies beginning in the early 1980’s. Then in 1982, the Microfloppy Industry Committee (made up of 23 media companies), established a media specification for the 3 1/2 floppy. This change impacted the design of the disk for the existing manufacturers.

This format began replacing the 5 1/4 in the mid-1990’s. Capacity was initially 264KB and by 1986 was increased to 1.44MB. It was small enough to fit in your shirt pocket. You could even fit two.

The 3 1/2-inch saw commercial success for about a decade, then starting in the early 2000’s there was more of a transition to CDs for data storage and delivery of software programs.

This was the last mass produced format for the floppy disk. Over time other forms of offline data storage became available, such as the CD/DVD and flash drives. All of these provided greater capacity, to store our photos, videos, music, images and other files that demand lots of MB of storage.

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8-inch Disk Drive

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Two 5 1/4-inch Disk Drives

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Single 3 1/2-inch Disk Drive

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Who was involved with the development of the floppy disk?

There are some early visionaries in the area of floppy disks that need to be called out below.

Alan Shugart and David Noble, IBM According to the research, the first floppy disk was developed by a team at IBM lead by Alan Shugart, who was the Direct Access Storage Product Manager at the time and David Noble was the lead engineer assigned by Alan to work on the project to develop a “reliable and inexpensive system for loading instructions and installing software updates into mainframe computers.”

“Dave Noble … is the real father of floppy disks.” - Al Shugart

Alan Shugart

David Noble

Herb Thompson and Ralph Flores, IBM Both Herb and Ralph contributed to the success of the floppy disk with the development of a special envelope contained a dust-wiping element that was used to protect the disk from dust and debris.

Alan and other team members, Memorex They left IBM and continued to work on floppy disks and drives.

Alan Shugart, Shugart Associates The company was founded in 1973 and was a major manufacturer of the 8-inch floppy disk drives and developer of the 5 1/4-inch floppy disk and drive.

Herb Thompson

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Why was a floppy disk so important to the personal computing evolution?

The floppy disk was an important contributor to our advancement in personal computing in many ways. One of the key areas was providing an easy portable way to transport data from one computer to another‌ I guess viruses were not an issue back then. Ordinary people who worked or owned computers could load operating systems and software programs on their personal computers.

The floppy invention provided a huge new distribution channel for software development and the software industry itself. Companies could write software programs and then distribute the software to users via mail order or in stores. This allowed for thousands of new entrants into the marketplace. Even though there were issues with the floppy disks, the benefits they afforded to personal computing advances outweighed the reliability issues and other user impact. There were always companies at the time promoting how much better they were in that respect. See the ad on the right.

The invention of the floppy disk really contributed to the many changes that would impact both the work and home environments – assistants could be more productive in updating correspondence by using word processing programs rather than a typewriter, people could bring work home to do on a home computer and students could still stay up all night typing a paper, but correcting the typos was easier.

Starting in the early 1980’s, reasonably priced floppy disks and drives were an important driver to more affordable home and work personal computing.

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Memory and Storage Hierarchy

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Quiet Reflection The floppy disk was one more step in the important evolution of personal computing by paving the way for more user control in installing software they wanted, rather than what is provided by the company selling the computer and can be seen in advancements we take for granted today, like flash drives.

“It turned out to be one of the most influential product introductions ever in the industry,” Jim Porter, a long-time disk drive analyst.

This quote really sums up the impact of floppies to software industry: “More than five billion floppies were sold per year worldwide at its peak in the mid-1990s.”

The floppy disk still lives on even today, well as a metaphor, especially in Windows and other software programs – “Save”. Look closely and you will see the floppy disk as an icon. There are others that truly allow the floppies to live on as a matter of necessity (U.S. Government) or legacy programs or perhaps a little nostalgia.

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References There were about 20 websites that were reviewed to provide a depth of understanding of the history behind the floppy disk. Many of them repeated the same text as the online resources listed below. www-03.ibm.com www.computerhistory.org www.history-computer.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_floppy_disk

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