[cctalk] Re: Floppy disk

Lot's of mis-information which I think I correct below I'm pretty sure the first shipments of the 23FD was in January 1971 the with 2835 Storage Control Unit for the 2305 Fixed Head DASD and the S/370 M155; it might have been simultaneous but the 2835 did attach to existing S/360 M85 2880 Block Multiplexer channel and the M85 shipped in December 1969. It was followed later that year with the shipment in the S/370 M165 and then the rest of the S/370. FWIW, the 2835 SCU was very similar to the 3380 SCU, mainly differing due to the parallel data transfer from the drive. The 23FD was a read only device Dave Noble started on what became the 23FD in February 1968 and it passed IBM's A-Test a year later. Al Shugart moved to Memorex in April 1969. The first read/write FD's were shipped in 1972 by Memorex and others, it not clear who was first; they were incompatible which each other, but the Memorex could read and write the 23FD disk. The IBM Diskette 1 was announced with the 3740 in January 1973 and shipped in May 1973 - and the industry began Tom -----Original Message----- From: Fred Cisin <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> Sent: Monday, June 8, 2026 5:18 PM To: Murray McCullough via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Cc: Murray McCullough <c.murray.mccullough(a)gmail.com> Subject: [cctalk] Re: Floppy disk On Mon, 8 Jun 2026, Murray McCullough via cctalk wrote: I think that Alan Shugart (and staff) started work on it in 1967, and it made it to market in 1971. Then, the patent for the disk was issued on June 6, 1972. July 18, 1972 was probably the patent fot the 8" floppy DRIVE. Both of which were already shipping in 1971. They were originally intended as a read-only device for loading "microcode" into the IBM 3330 Shugart moved to Memorex in 1972, but in 1973, founded Shugart Associates. Xerox bought Shugart Associates in 1977. Shugart then started a new company in 1978, and tried to name it "Shugart Technology". But, when Xerox had bought the company in 1977, that purchase included the name "Shugart Associates". So, to avoid trademark overlap legal issues, in 1979, he renamed it "Seagate" NEVER name your commpany after yourself! If you do, then if/when you sell the company, you're selling off all the rights to your name also! OB_irrelevant: [Unless you are POTUS, in which case, you can go around tagging everything in sight, like a teenage spray can gang. By taking immediate action starting after announcement, the opposition, and those who wouldst object to doing things that you aren't empowered to do, can't get organized to block it until it is too late.] -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com