Shugart's 1,000,000 901 8" Floppy

I am pretty sure that Shugart lumped the 900, 901 and 801 into one family for counting purposes so that there would only be a single one millionth drive of one model number from that family, and I am also pretty sure that this was the first disk drive family to achieve 1 million units produced. I doubt if the 900, 901 or 851 achieved one million in and of themselves; the volume was in the 801. BTW I am pretty sure the Smithsonian drive was gold plated. BTW the whole concept of one millionth is fairly ambiguous given the distinction between built, shipped, gross sales and net sales. I suspect these were manufactured on a single day based upon lot sequence number and a calculation of the date from gross prior sales and finished goods inventory. It maybe they pulled finished goods and remanufactured them with the plated castings. To the best of my recollection the early FDDs used pin and socket connectors such as the Ampex M series but went to flat ribbon cable for cost. By the late 70s I think the 801 became standard and everyone offered a Shugart interface compatible drive. FWIW, I joined Shugart just after all this and have asked some of the more senior alumni for comments Tom