Editing Floppy disk (section)

==={{anchor|8.0}}8-inch floppy disk===
[[File:8-inch floppy disk - IZOT, Bulgaria.jpg|thumb|upright|8-inch floppy disk]]
Floppy disks of the first standard are 8 inches in diameter,<ref name= "Teja_1985">{{cite book |title= The Designer's Guide to Disk Drives |first=Edward R. |last=Teja |publisher=[[Reston Publishing Company, Inc.|Reston]] / [[Prentice-Hall Company|Prentice hall]] |location=Reston, Virginia, US |edition=1st |date=1985 |isbn= 0-8359-1268-X}}</ref> protected by a flexible plastic jacket. It was a read-only device used by IBM as a way of loading [[microcode]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Floppy Disk |url= http://grok.lsu.edu/Article.aspx?articleid=11150 |publisher=[[Louisiana State University]] |access-date= 2013-12-02 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141018004741/http://grok.lsu.edu/Article.aspx?articleid=11150 |archive-date= 2014-10-18 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Read/write floppy disks and their drives became available in 1972, but it was IBM's 1973 introduction of the [[IBM 3740|3740 data entry system]]<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/rochester/rochester_4016.html| publisher = IBM | title = 3740 |date=23 January 2003|website= Archives |access-date= 13 October 2014|url-status= dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171225162318/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/rochester/rochester_4016.html|archive-date=25 December 2017}}</ref> that began the establishment of floppy disks, called by IBM the ''Diskette 1'', as an industry standard for information interchange. Diskettes formatted for this system stored 242,944 bytes.<ref>{{Cite book|year= 1974 | via = Stuttgart University |url= http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/ibm/3740/GA21-9152-2_IBM_3740_DataEntrySystem_SystemSummary_and_InstallationManual_PhysicalPlanning_Jun74.pdf |title=IBM 3740 Data Entry System System Summary and Installation Manual – Physical Planning|publisher=IBM|page = 2 |quote=The diskette is about 8" (20 cm) square and has a net capacity of 1898 128-character records – about one day's data entry activity. Each of the diskette's 73 magnetic recording tracks available for data entry can hold 26 sectors of up to 128 characters each.|access-date= 2019-03-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215173042/http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/ibm/3740/GA21-9152-2_IBM_3740_DataEntrySystem_SystemSummary_and_InstallationManual_PhysicalPlanning_Jun74.pdf |archive-date=2017-02-15 |url-status=live}}</ref> Early [[microcomputer]]s used for engineering, business, or word processing often used one or more 8-inch disk drives for removable storage; the [[CP/M]] operating system was developed for microcomputers with 8-inch drives.<ref name="Kildall_1980_CPM">{{cite magazine |title=The History of CP/M, The Evolution Of An Industry: One Person's Viewpoint |author-first=Gary Arlen |author-last=Kildall |author-link=Gary Arlen Kildall |date=January 1980 |magazine=[[Dr. Dobb's Journal]] |pages=6–7 |volume=5 |issue=1 <!-- |number=-->#41 |url=http://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/CPM_history_kildall.txt |access-date=2013-06-03 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161124221907/http://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/CPM_history_kildall.txt |archive-date=2016-11-24}}</ref>

The family of 8-inch disks and drives increased over time and later versions could store up to 1.2&nbsp;MB;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cpm.z80.de/manuals/IBM_GA21_9182_4.txt |title=The IBM Diskette General Information Manual | place = [[Germany|DE]] |access-date= 2014-10-13 | publisher = Z80 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141028015720/http://www.cpm.z80.de/manuals/IBM_GA21_9182_4.txt|archive-date=2014-10-28 |url-status=live}}</ref> many microcomputer applications did not need that much capacity on one disk, so a smaller size disk with lower-cost media and drives was feasible. The 5¼-inch drive succeeded the 8-inch size in many applications, and developed to about the same storage capacity as the original 8-inch size, using higher-density media and recording techniques.{{fact|date=June 2024}}