History of the Floppy
Alan Shugart is generally credited with inventing the floppy disk drive in 1967 while working for IBM. One of Shugart's senior engineers, David Noble, actually proposed the flexible medium (then 8'' in diameter) and the protective jacket with the fabric lining. Shugart left IBM in 1969, and in 1976 his company, Shugart Associates, introduced the minifloppy (5 1/4'') disk drive. It, of course, became the standard eventually used by personal computers, rapidly replacing the 8'' drives. He also helped create the Shugart Associates System Interface (SASI), which was later renamed small computer system interface (SCSI) when approved as an ANSI standard.
Sony introduced the first 3 1/2'' microfloppy drives and disks in 1983. The first significant company to adopt the 3 1/2'' floppy for general use was Hewlett-Packard in 1984 with its partially PC-compatible HP-150 system. The industry adoption of the 3 1/2'' drive was furthered when Apple used it in the first Macintosh systems in 1984 and IBM put the drive into its entire PC product line in 1986.
Note that all PC floppy disk drives are still based on (and mostly compatible with) the original Shugart designs, including the electrical and command interfaces. Compared to other parts of the PC, the floppy disk drive has undergone relatively few changes over the years.
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