NO, they are NOT an early version of a 3.5" any more than saying that a 1885 Benz or 1896 Durye or 1890s Oldsmobile was an early version of a FORD. At one point, it became obvious that the next generation of diskettes would be smaller than 5.25", and would probably be shirt pocket size. There were several that came out: 3" (think Amstrad) 3.25" (Dysan) 3.5" (Sony) 3.9" (IBM) The journalists argued long and hard over which was the "best" of the "shirt pocket disks", and therefore would "obviously" win out. George Morrow suggested that the computer industry should cut a deal with the clothing industry to make shirt pockets 5.25" (8" anyone?). Dysan, who was the foremost diskette manufacturer, did not like the 3" and 3.5" designs, since that would require MAJOR retooling. So they came out with the 3.25", which was simply a smaller version of a 5.25", and would require MUCH less re-tooling to produce in their existing factories. But how to influence the outcome of which would become the "standard"? George Morrow said that standards are great - everyone should have a unique one of their own. BTW, does anyone have a copy of "Quotations of Chairman Morrow"? I'd like to buy one, or at least get a duplicate of the text of it. Dysan "knew" that whichever one had software distributed on it would become the standard. So they bet the company on a daring venture. They started a software publishing business! They went around to the larger software companies and cut distribution deals. For a while, you could buy ANY major program on 3.25" diskette! The Seequa Chameleon 325 was the only machine that I know of that used a 3.25" drive, and I've never seen one of them. Everybody else waited to see what everybody else would do. The inertia kept the critical mass from ever coming about. There were a lot of 3.25" drives and diskettes made. Many more than computers that used them. Dysan never completely recovered. Meanwhile, Amstrad went with the 3" diskette. Amdek marketed an external 3" drive unit for use with Aplle ][ and RS Coco. The earliest models of the Gavilan used 3". I'm not sure, but I think that some Japanese models of Canon may have also used the 3". IBM showed the 3.9" at trade shows, but apparently never got around to ever selling any. I think that the diskettes and drives were by Brown and Tabor. But when HP, Apple, and then IBM went with 3.5", the "standard" was sealed; the others were doomed, and it became clear that technological superiority was NOT necessarily the controlling factor of what would win out. Note that there have been some minor changes in the 3.5" diskettes. The earliest ones were without shutters. Then there was a "manual" shutter that you had to slide open and closed. Then a semi-automatic one that you had to slide open, and you pinched the corner to release a latch to let a spring close the shutter. Look for the word "pinch" on some of them. Many current diskettes still have a vestigial arrow pointing to which corner you had to pinch, although now that arrow purportedly is to tell you which end of the diskette to put into the drive. Later on, there was a similar (unresolved) battle between 3 or 4 different 2.5" and 2.9" formats. (Zenith, TEC, ...) -- Fred Cisin cisin(a)xenosoft.com XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com PO Box 1236 (510) 558-9366 Berkeley, CA 94701-1236 On Wed, 7 Mar 2001, Tom Uban wrote:

On Wed, 7 Mar 2001, Tom Uban wrote: <...> They are 3.25" drives. Dysan was trying to compete with the Sony 3.5". Guess who won? Fred will be able to expand upon this. Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org