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Floppy disks [message #83363] Tue, 16 August 2016 15:52 Go to next message
moss24 is currently offline  moss24
Messages: 107
Registered: May 2016
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Who remembers ever seeing floppy disks? At times I look back and marvel at how technology has changed over the years. Was the floppy disk able to store music while ihaving such a small storage space?

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Re: Floppy disks [message #83364 is a reply to message #83363] Tue, 16 August 2016 17:47 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18786
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

I remember floppy disks. For that matter, I remember paper tape and Hollerith cards. They were really "before my time" but some businesses were still using paper tape in the beginning of my career. Not many IT organizations, to be honest, but quite a few CNC machines still used paper tape to store programs. I also remember drum drives and 9 track NRZI and PE (open reel) tape drives.

Mostly, I remember those tape drives and removable disk packs, which were in almost all IT shops in the 1980s, before PCs were anything but toys. I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and started my career in the 1980s, and I loved microprocessors and single board computers but they were still toys until around 1990. That's when floppy drives became popular - in the microcomputer era. Saw 'em first on machines running the CPM operating system in the late 1970s. They were available on everything through the 1980s.

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Re: Floppy disks [message #83369 is a reply to message #83364] Fri, 19 August 2016 15:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gofar99 is currently offline  gofar99
Messages: 1949
Registered: May 2010
Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, I remember them. I learned to progam on an IBM 1620 using SPS and Fortran 2. I even learned machine language for it. One machine I really wanted to try, but they would not let me was a huge Burroughs. It filled a room about 100 feet on a side. More tape drives than you can imagine. It had a giant 1 meg memory. I don't know what the cpu was or the operating system but it was used for scientific studies. Not for students to fiddle with. I keep a few floppy drives (both 5.25 and 3.5) around as there is always the chance that something will show up and need to be read from a disk. I also keep an Iomega Zip drive handy. 10 meg is piddly now but was huge back then. Rolling Eyes

Good Listening
Bruce

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Re: Floppy disks [message #83371 is a reply to message #83369] Fri, 19 August 2016 17:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18786
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

My first technical job was with an OEM for Data General, building microcomputers during the summer when I was still in school. I later became an engineer for Data General, which was my first full-time job after graduation. Back then, most businesses were run on minicomputers or superminis made by the likes of IBM, Data General and Digital Equipment Corp. And of course, there were the mainframes from IBM, Amdahl and Burroughs. Microprocessors were just used in calculators and other dedicated devices for the most part until the 1980s. Microcomputers weren't used for much in business until the 1990s.

I must admit I still find that era more interesting for computer science. We've come a long way since then, but that's really when the foundations for modern computing were built.

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Re: Floppy disks [message #83384 is a reply to message #83364] Fri, 26 August 2016 12:20 Go to previous messageGo to next message
moss24 is currently offline  moss24
Messages: 107
Registered: May 2016
Viscount
Wayne Parham wrote on Tue, 16 August 2016 17:47

I remember floppy disks. For that matter, I remember paper tape and Hollerith cards. They were really "before my time" but some businesses were still using paper tape in the beginning of my career. Not many IT organizations, to be honest, but quite a few CNC machines still used paper tape to store programs. I also remember drum drives and 9 track NRZI and PE (open reel) tape drives.

Mostly, I remember those tape drives and removable disk packs, which were in almost all IT shops in the 1980s, before PCs were anything but toys. I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and started my career in the 1980s, and I loved microprocessors and single board computers but they were still toys until around 1990. That's when floppy drives became popular - in the microcomputer era. Saw 'em first on machines running the CPM operating system in the late 1970s. They were available on everything through the 1980s.



What a chronology of events Wayne; I am even wishing I grew up in the 1970s. Technology has really advanced and being a 90's kid, I am still marveling at how things have changed and improved over the years. We can only imagine how things will probably look, 20 years from today.

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Re: Floppy disks [message #83394 is a reply to message #83363] Sat, 27 August 2016 09:56 Go to previous message
Thaddeus is currently offline  Thaddeus
Messages: 51
Registered: March 2016
Baron
I remember using floppy disks in school. I don't think that you were ever able to record music on them though. I find it amazing that technology has come so far in such a short period of time. I wonder what they will think of next?

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