Disks and Discs

Why are floppies "disks" but CDs are "discs"?

Floppies were invented by Hitler.

1967
In 1967, IBM tasked their San Jose, California development laboratory to develop a reliable and inexpensive system for loading microcode into their System/370 mainframes in a process called Initial Control Program Load (ICPL).[6] The System/370 was IBM's first computer system family to make extensive usage of volatile read/write semiconductor memory for microcode,[nb 1] so for most models, whenever[nb 2] the power was turned on, the microcode had to be loaded (System/370's predecessor, System/360, generally used non-volatile read-only memory for microcode). IBM also wanted inexpensive media that could be sent out to customers with software updates.[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_floppy_disk#The_8-inch_disk



1965

The IBM 2314 Disk Access Storage Facility was introduced on April 22, 1965, one year after the System/360 introduction.[33] It was used with the System/360 and the System/370 lines.

1964
IBM 2310
IBM 2315 disk cartridge
The IBM 2310 Removable Cartridge Drive was announced in 1964 with the IBM 1800,[53] and then in 1965 with the IBM 1130; it likely first shipped with the 1130 in late 1965.[54] It could store 512,000 16-bit words (1,024,000 bytes) on an IBM 2315 cartridge. A single 14-inch (360 mm) oxide-coated aluminum disk spun in a plastic shell with openings for the read/write arm and two heads.

1956
IBM 350
IBM 305 at U.S. Army Red River Arsenal, with two IBM 350 disk drives in the foreground
RAMAC mechanism at Computer History Museum


The IBM 350 disk storage unit, the first disk drive, was announced by IBM as a component of the IBM 305 RAMAC computer system on September 14, 1956.[8][9][10][11] Simultaneously a very similar product, the IBM 355, was announced for the IBM 650 RAMAC computer system. RAMAC stood for "Random Access Method of Accounting and Control."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_3340#IBM_350

1955

In 1955 IBM signed a consent decree requiring, amongst other things, that IBM would by 1962 have no more than one-half of the punched card manufacturing capacity in the United States. Tom Watson Jr.'s decision to sign this decree, where IBM saw the punched card provisions as the most significant point, completed the transfer of power to him from Thomas Watson, Sr.[22]


Punched card technology developed into a powerful tool for business data-processing. By 1950 punched cards had become ubiquitous in industry and government. "Do not fold, spindle or mutilate," a generalized version of the warning that appeared on some punched cards (generally on those distributed as paper documents to be later returned for further machine processing, such as checks and utility bills), became a motto for the post-World War II era.[20][21]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_card#History


1952
The IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine, known as the Defense Calculator while in development, was IBM’s first commercial scientific computer, which was announced to the public on April 29, 1952

The Magnetic Drum Reader/Recorder was added on the recommendation of John von Neumann, who said it would reduce the need for high speed I/O.[8]

The first magnetic tape drives were used on the Tape Processing Machine (TPM) and then adapted to the 701.[9]


1940-1945
In the book, published in 2001, Black outlined the way in which IBM's technology helped facilitate Nazi genocide through generation and tabulation of punch cards based upon national census data.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust#IBM%27s_post-invasion_Polish_subsidiary

No machines were sold – only leased. IBM was the sole source of all punch cards and spare parts. It serviced the machines on site either directly or through its authorized dealer network or field trainees. There were no universal punch cards. Each series of cards was custom-designed by IBM engineers to capture information going in and to tabulate information the Nazis wanted to extract.

Edwin Black, on updates in 2002[6]

After the publication of Black's 2012 expanded edition, he wrote for the Huffington Post, "The punch cards, machinery, training, servicing, and special project work, such as population census and identification, was managed directly by IBM headquarters in New York, and later through its subsidiaries in Germany, known as Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen Gesellschaft (DEHOMAG), Poland, Holland, France, Switzerland, and other European countries." He added that the punch cards bore the indicia of the German subsidiary Dehomag.[10]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehomag
Dehomag was a German subsidiary of IBM with monopoly in the German market before and during World War II.[1] The word was an acronym for Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen Gesellschaft mbH (English: German Hollerith Machines LLC). Hollerith refers to the German-American inventor of the technology of punched cards, Herman Hollerith. In April 1949 the company name was changed to IBM Deutschland.[2]

Dehomag leased and maintained the German government's punched card machines.[6] Dehomag general manager for Germany, Hermann Rottke, reported to IBM President Thomas J. Watson in New York.[10][11] It was legal for IBM to conduct business with Germany directly until America entered the war in December 1941.[12]

IBM New York established a special subsidiary in General Government, Watson Business Machines, to deal with railway traffic there during the Holocaust in Poland.[10][11] The German Transport Ministry used IBM machines under the New York-controlled subsidiary in Warsaw, not the German subsidiary. Watson Business Machines operated a punch card printing shop near the Warsaw Ghetto. The punch cards bore the indicia of the German subsidiary Dehomag.[10][11][13]

Leon Krzemieniecki, the last surviving person involved in the administration of the rail transportation to Auschwitz and Treblinka, stated he knew the punched card machines were not German machines, because the labels were in English. Income from the machines leased in General Government was sent through Geneva to IBM in New York.[10][11][12]

Watson's merger of diplomacy and business was not always lauded. During the 1930s, IBM's German subsidiary was its most profitable foreign operation, and a 2001 book by Edwin Black, IBM and the Holocaust, proves that Watson's pursuit of profit led him to personally approve and spearhead IBM's strategic technological relationship with Nazi Germany.[15] In particular, critics point to the Order of the German Eagle medal that Watson received at the Berlin ICC meeting in 1937, as evidence that he was being honored for the help that IBM's German subsidiary Dehomag (Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen Gesellschaft mbH) and its punch card machines provided the Nazi regime, particularly in the tabulation of census data (i.e. location of Jews). Another study argues that Watson believed, perhaps naively, that the medal was in recognition of his years of labor on behalf of global commerce and international peace.[6] Within a year of the Berlin congress though, where Watson's hopes had run high, he found himself strongly protesting the German policy toward the Jews.

Because of his strong feelings about the issue, Watson wanted to return his German citation shortly after receiving it. When Secretary of State Hull advised him against that course of action, he gave up the idea until the spring of 1940. Then Hull refused advice, and Watson sent the medal back in June 1940.[16] Dehomag's management disapproved of Watson's action and considered separating from IBM. This occurred when Germany declared war on the United States in December 1941, and the German shareholders took custody of the Dehomag operation.[6] But during World War II, IBM subsidiaries in occupied Europe never stopped delivery of punch cards to Dehomag, and documents uncovered show that senior executives at IBM world headquarters in New York took great pains to maintain legal authority over Dehomag's operations and assets through the personal intervention of IBM managers in neutral Switzerland, directed via personal communications and private letters.[15]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Watson#Head_of_IBM

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International Based Machines