Floppy ROM
In August 1976 at the Personal Computing show in Atlantic City, Bob Marsh of Processor Technology approached Bob Jones, the publisher of Interface Age magazine, about pressing software onto vinyl records. Processor Technology provided an 8080 program to be recorded. This test record did not work and they were unable to devote more time to the effort.
Daniel Meyer and Gary Kay of Southwest Technical Products arranged for Robert Uiterwyk to provide his 4K BASIC interpreter program for the 6800 microprocessor. The idea was to record the program on audio tape in the "Kansas City" standard format then make a master record from the tape. Eva-Tone made Soundsheets on thin vinyl that would hold one song. These were inexpensive and could be bound in a magazine.
Bill Turner and Bill Blomgren of MicroComputerSystems Inc. worked with EVA-TONE and developed a successful process. The intermediate stage of recording to tape produced dropouts so a SWTPC AC-30 cassette interface was connected directly to the record cutting equipment.
The May 1977 issue of Interface Age contained the first "Floppy ROM", a 331⁄3 RPM record with about 6 minutes of "Kansas City" standard audio.
The September 1978 Floppy ROM Number 5:. Side 1 Apple Basic "the automated dress pattern". Side 2 IAPS format "A program for writing letters".
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