The evolution of the floppy has been marked in little over a decade by a significant increase in capacity accompanied by a noticeable decrease in the form factor from the early 8 inch floppy disks to the present day 3.5 inch floppy disks. This decade will also be remarkable as OEMs adopt ``Super'' dense floppies.
The most commonly seen floppies today are invariably one of the form factors--the 5.25 inch or the 3.5 inch. Each form factor has several associated capacity ranges. The 5.25 inch floppies available are: 180 KB (single density), 360 KB (double density) and 1.2 MB (high density). The 3.5 inch floppies available are: 720 KB (double density) and 1.44 MB (high density). The emerging super dense floppies will evolve on the installed base of 3.5 inch floppies. The latest member of this set is the 2.88 MB (extra density) floppy, pioneered by Toshiba. The cornerstone of market acceptance of newer drives is compatibility to the older family. The 2.88 MB (formatted) floppy drive allows the user to format, read from and write to the lower density diskettes.
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