8-inch IBM floppy disk

The 8-inch floppy disk was a magnetic storage disk for the data introduced commercially by IBM in 1971. It was designed by an IBM team as an inexpensive way to load data into the IBM System / 370. Plus it was a read-only bare disk containing 80 KB of data. The first read-write version was introduced in 1972 by Memorex and could contain 175 KB on 50 tracks (with 8 sectors per track). Other improvements have led to various coatings and increased capacities. Finally, it was surpassed by the mini diskette of 5.25 inches introduced in 1976.