History of the floppy disk
Over the history of the floppy disk a number of different formats were used. Floppy disks have now been largely superseded by other storage mediums and by file transfer using email. In 1967, IBM gave their San Jose, California storage development center a task to develop a simple and inexpensive system for loading microcode into their System/370 mainframes. The 370 was the first IBM computer to use read/write semiconductor memory for microcode, and whenever the power was turned off the microcode had to be reloaded (System/370’s predecessor, System/360, used non-volatile read-only memory for microcode). Normally this task would be done with tape drives which almost all 370 systems included, but tapes were large and slow. IBM wanted something faster and lighter that could also be sent out to customers with software updates for $5.
