Microdisk software is starting to come through in volume as Hitachi's 3" disks catch on among BBC users.

A spokesman for Advanced Memory Systems, which sells the Hitachi drives, said the relative lack of software had held back the 3" units. But software houses are making their products available on the disks; educational software, in particular, is becoming more common.

The software houses concerned are Gemini Marketing (0395 265165) with business packages, Clares (0606 48511) with utilities including the controversial tape-to-disk routine Replica II. Bourne (0794 523301) which specialises in educational software, and Beebugsoft of High Wycombe.