First floppy disk drive

IBM engineers develop the first commercial floppy disk drive system in the late 1960s. The read-only 8-inch disk and drive, called the 23FD, debuts in IBM’s System 370 computer in 1971. IBM soon realizes that a read- and write-capable disk drive can replace punch cards as a data entry device. This leads to the 33FD, a 243-kilobyte, 8-inch disk drive that is sold in 1973.
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