AMPEX FLOPPY Circa 1965

From: Marty <Marty_at_itgonline.com>
Date: Fri Jun 5 14:43:25 1998

 A friend of mine collects and restores old reel to reel tape drives.
 He recently showed me an Ampex 1080 (I'll have to double-check this
 model number) audio recorder capable of 3 3/4 minutes of recording
 time. Interestingly, this recorder uses a magnetic oxide covered mylar
 floppy disk of about 12" diameter which doesn't have a sleeve by the
 way (this disk puts the flop in floppy- it is extremely limp). Of
 course this is serial access and analog, but could IBM had been
 inspired by this unit? The recorder was a flop (pun intended)
 commercially. The operation and service manual are copyrighted 1965
 and 1967. I looked for patent material on the original IBM floppy at
 their patent server as advertised on the list but didn't come up with
 anything on the first IBM floppy drive. Any info would be greatly
 apppreciated.
 
 Marty
Received on Fri Jun 05 1998 - 14:43:25 BST