Alan Shugart
Alan Field Shugart (* 27. September 1930 in Los Angeles , † 12. December 2006 in San Jose ) was a US -American engineering , the invention of the floppy disk is attributed.
Shugart studied physical engineering at the University of Redlands with a bachelor's degree in 1951. He then went to IBM as a customer service engineer. He led a number of magnetic disk storage development programs at IBM, including the Ramac Project, the first commercial hard drive computer. Shugart became manager for direct access storage at IBM and was in their development center in San José. He was also head of the working group in 1969, the 8 "- floppy developed (floppy disk). In 1969 he left IBM and went to Memorex. In 1973 he founded his own company Shugart Associates , where he perfected floppy disks and disk drives for the mass market. In 1974 he left Shugart Associates in a dispute. He took a break, founded a bar and worked with friends as a fisherman with his own salmon fishing boat. In 1979 he founded together with Finis Conner , the company Seagate (first as Finis Conner Shugart Technology), a leading manufacturer of hard drives .
Shugart not only developed the floppy disk, but also (at Shugart Associates) the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) for connecting optical and magnetic drives to computers. Initially called Shugart Associates System Interface (SASI), it was later given its definitive name when it received support from companies like NCR and Adaptec .
The term Shugart is also used for the de facto standard for floppy disk drive interface connectors:
- 50 pins: 8 ″
- 34 pins: 5 1 ⁄ 4 ″, 3 1 ⁄ 2 ″, 3 ″
In 1998 Shugart resigned from Seagate's chief executive officer (CEO) position .
He was a Fellow of the Computer History Museum and received the IEEE Reynold B. Johnson Information Storage Systems Award.
Shugart was married twice - from his first marriage he had three children. He died in 2006 in a California hospital from complications from heart surgery.
He also started a restaurant in Pacific Grove, a small airline, a women's clothing store, and a small publisher.
Web links
- Biography at the Computer History Museum
- If you don't have fun, you have no ideas - on the death of Al Shugart: If you don't have fun, you have no ideas - on the death of Al Shugart. In: Heise online . December 14, 2006 (biographical news item). Retrieved October 11, 2018.
- Biography at Neogrid
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interview San Jose Mercury News ( Memento from February 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Shugart, Alan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Shugart, Alan F. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American inventor of floppy disks and SCSI |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 27, 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | los Angeles |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 12, 2006 |
| Place of death | San Jose |