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This week on YugaTech Throwback Thursday, we’re going to look back on the Floppy Disk; how it got its name, and how the invention of this long-forgotten storage device has single-handedly changed the way people stored data and the computing industry in general.

Out with punch cards and tapes, and in with the Floppy

The year was 1967. IBM needed “a reliable and inexpensive” storage device that will be used to load microcode into their computers and will serve as viable alternative to then popular Cassette Tapes. The company turned to the late Alan Shugart (1930-2006) which is then the Product Manager of Direct Access Storage department.

(From left to right) 8-inch, 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch Floppy disks

Backed by a group of talented engineers, Shugart and his team first came up with an 8-inch read-only storage device they coined “memory disk”. It can hold 80-kilobyte’s worth of data which was a big thing during that time, considering that it’ll take tons of punch cards to replicate the same result.

But their creation had one major flaw – it was susceptible to dusts and scratches. Their solution was to place the bare disk inside a flexible plastic enclosure. The flimsy nature of the said enclosure gave birth to the memory disk’s nickname – Floppy.

IBM’s Floppy disk was just too big

Floppy was made available to the consumer market in 1971 and was an instant hit among the techie crowd. But only a year after its consumer release, Shugart left IBM and founded his own tech firm in 1973 which he named after himself (Shugart Associates).

floppy drives
Floppy disk drives

Two years after going solo, two of Shugart’s engineers namely Jim Adkinson and Don Massaro was approached by An Wang who is the founder of Wang Laboratories. Wang wanted a smaller storage device which he can use for his machines, but he also wanted it to be considerably cheaper than the 8-inch Floppy which was being retailed for USD200 a pop.

Fueled by this rather unusual proposition, Shugart and his team began working on their next project. In 1976 they pull out the rabbit from the hat and came up with the 5.25-inch Floppy disk which can handle 98.5KB of data. Shugart Associate hit a gold mine with the 5¼-incher and they’ve successfully overthrown the 8-inch version as the king of the hill.

Then a genius hippy stepped in…

Although Shugart’s firm was already winging it with their smaller Floppy, what really shifted the popularity of their creation to high gear was when Steve Jobs decided to make the transition from Data Cassettes to the 5.25-inch format for the Apple II in 1978.

The Apple II which uses two 5.25-inch Floppy disk drives instead of one

Job’s buddy and Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, saw greater potentials on the 5 ¼-inch format which eventually led to the creation of the Disk II. Further down the line, Apple further refined their drives to increase performance for their new computers. The company made a total of 6 variations of the drive before they decided to jump aboard the compact floppy bandwagon in 1984.

Last evolution, before extinction

One of the things that made Shugart Associate’s disk popular was the fact that it was considerably smaller than IBM’s 8-incher. However, as time goes by, people wanted a smaller version of storage device, something that they can easily put inside their pockets.

This consumer need sparked a new trend which led to the creation of smaller versions of the popular storage device. Companies began manufacturing in smaller formats which ranged from 2-inch up to 4-inch, but it was Sony and its 3.5-inch Floppy disk that was considered by the Microfloppy Industry Committee as the standard in 1982.

floppy diskette

But Sony was clever enough to not put all of its eggs in one basket. While the Japanese firm was developing the 3.5-inch floppy, they were also collaborating with Philips in coming up with digital audio discs that will replace the aging gramophone records. The partnership led to the creation of Compact Discs which eventually replaced Floppies as the go-to device for data storage.

The legacy lives on

Almost half a century since its invention, the concept behind the Floppy Disk is still being used up to this day in devices such as Hard Disk drives. Although it’s meant to serve as a tool for storing data, let’s not forget that Floppy disks also played a crucial role in software development and the evolution of personal computers.

The invention of Floppy disk truly is Alan Shugart’s invaluable gift to tech aficionados all over the world.

Source 1, 2

The post YugaTech #TBT: The Floppy Disk appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Yugatech #TBT (Throwback Thursday), is a weekly stint where we pay tribute to old technologies/inventions that paved the way for devices that we know today. That said, we think that it’s only appropriate to jump start this with the “Mother of all Throwbacks” coined Le Point de View de la Fenêtre du Gras.

view from the window at le gras
The world’s first permanent photograph. Le Point de View de la Fenêtre du Gras by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce circa 1826.

At first glance, it’s quite challenging to make out anything from the photograph above, but that’s actually a view from a window at Joseph Nicéphore Niépce’s estate called Le Gras which is considered by many as the birthplace of photography.

Le Point de View de la Fenêtre du Gras or commonly known as “View from the Window at Le Gras” was shot using a Camera Obscura and went down in history as the earliest surviving permanent photograph.

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce: The unsung father of photography

Portrait of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce.[ Image Source]

Although the concept behind camera obscuras have been around long before Niépce (pronounced as knee-yeps) took his famous photograph, early humans were never able to permanently place their captures on paper (or any material for that matter).

The problem was the chemicals used during those times to produce photographs were prone to fading. This inspired Niépce to come up with a solution that eventually led him to the invention of photographic process he called Heliography which literally means sun writing.

The actual Camera Obscura that Niépce used to capture the View from the Window at Le Gras. [Image Source]

The process involved the use of a light-sensitive material called Bitumen of Judea (or Syrian Asphalt) which is then dissolved in lavender oil. He then used this mixture to paint a sheet of pewter which he used together with his camera obscura to take his world renowned photograph.

It’s believed that it took an 8-hour long exposure in order to photograph the View from the Window at Le Gras. To eliminate blur caused by the camera movement, Niépce mounted his camera obscura on a wooden pedestal that looked similar to a tripod.

view from le gras pewter plate
The pewter plate used for Le Point de View de la Fenêtre du Gras. [Image Source]

But as priceless as Niépce’s contribution may seem, he didn’t get the credit that he deserved for his work. Instead it was Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre that was named as the one of the founding Fathers of Photography with the invention of photographic process he coined Daguerreotype.

The concept behind the Daguerreotype began in 1829 when Niépce collaborated with Daguerre to further refine his photographic process using lavender oil called Physautotype. Unfortunately, Niépce died of stroke four years into the partnership leaving his son, Isidore Niépce, to continue what he started.

louis Daguerre
Portrait of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre by Jean-Baptiste Sabatier-Blot. Circa 1844 [Image Source]

Although Isidore tried to pick up where his father left of, Daguerre was believed to be secretly refining the Daguerreotype and was planning to totally remove Isidore out of the picture, taking all the credit for himself. Daguerre succeeded in his devilish plot and in 1839 the Daguerreotype became a huge hit across Europe and has reached US where it garnered more success.

It wasn’t until 1952 when photo historian and collector Helmut Gernsheim told the world about the unsung hero of photography through the discovery of the pewter plate that Niépce used for the world’s first photograph. Gernsheim donated the said plate and now hangs inside the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas.

Sources: 1 & 2

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