8 inch floppies

[Nigel Johnson]

Oh the things companies did to try and increase their profits! Bad idea 
indeed, reversible just meant half the profit for the suppliers!

On the same vein, we ordered a TWX line form Bell but supplied our own 
machine. Bell said they were not responsible if the line caused errors, 
and sent a man out with a bit error rate tester - all for 110 baud!

I remember when we sold DSD440 floppies, and the DEC salesmen were going 
around saying that it could not format floppies when their RX02 could - 
although the only thing that the RX02 could do was change the density 
bit from single to double!

cheers,

Nigel


On 13/12/2019 21:06, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
> On 12/13/19 8:22 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
>> On 12/13/19 5:11 PM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
>>
>>> I never saw any flippies commercially made but many
>>> companies made punches for flippy 5.25" disks.  I always
>>> had to make my own for 8".
>>>
>> They were standard products.  Let's see if I can find a period ad...
>>
>> Well, not an ad, but a precise description:
>>
>> http://bitsavers.org/pdf/3M/3M_Diskette_Reference_Manual_May83.pdf
>>
>> Page 8, top illustration.  3M added an "R" to the stock number for
>> "reversible".  I have a few in my stash.
> Must have been targeted at the home market as I don't
> remember ever seeing them in any of the supplies catalogs
> I dealt with.  And there were numerous white papers
> talking about why it was a really bad idea to spin
> floppies in both directions.
>
> bill
>
  

-- 
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

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