To add further rumor to this data stream...
"Way back when" I first ran into 8 inch floppies, I *heard* the
size chosen by IBM was based upon the need for a single floppy
to be able to replace a "box" of punched cards (choose your
variety - 80 or 96). So the need was to support around 2000
"records" per disk (77 tracks * 26 sectors per track = 2002.) And
a "record" of 128 bytes could hold an entire card image with ease.
Never substantiated this rumor, but it sounded good, anyway.
Gary.
At 02:53 PM 2/4/98 -0500, you wrote:
PG Manney wrote:
I keep an 8" floppy disk in the front of my store to amaze people ("Just
fold it twice and stick it in your drive...it holds a lot!")
Just how much do (did?) they hold? (I'm sure there were different data
densities...just a range is all I want!)
If I recall, when IBM first invented the things, they held right about
128k, single sided, single density. By the time I first dealt with them
in the TRS-80 Model 2, they were packing 512k on a single-sided disk.
Later, the Model 16/6000 Xenix systems were packing 1.25M on a double
sided disk. Shortly after that, the format died in favor of 5.25HD.
--
Ward Griffiths
Dylan: How many years must some people exist,
before they're allowed to be free?
WDG3rd: If they "must" exist until they're "allowed",
they'll never be free.