<P> A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium encased in a rectangular plastic carrier . It is read and written using a floppy disk drive (FDD). Floppy disks were an almost universal data format from the late 1970s into the 1990s, used at first as a primary data storage mechanism, and later mostly as a file transfer system as part of what became known as "sneakernet". </P> <P> Work on a drive that led to the world's first floppy disk and disk drive began in 1967 at a San Jose (CA) IBM facility, and introduced into the market in an 8 - inch format in 1972 . The more conveniently sized 51⁄4 - inch disks were introduced in 1976, and became almost universal on dedicated word processing systems and personal computers . This format was more slowly replaced by the 31⁄2 - inch format, first introduced in 1982 . There was a significant period where both were popular . A number of other variant sizes were introduced over time, with limited market success . </P> <P> Floppy disks remained a popular medium for nearly 40 years, but their use was declining by the mid-1990s . The introduction of high speed computer networking and new formats like the USB thumbdrive led to the eventual disappearance of the floppy disk as a standard feature of microcomputers, with a notable point in this conversion being the introduction of the floppy-less iMac in 1998 . After 2000, floppy disks were increasingly rare and used primarily with older hardware and especially with legacy industrial computer equipment . </P>

Who introduce the first floppy disk in 1967