unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Unknown User) (12/06/89)
A lot of people have requested information about the twenty megabyte 'floptical' drive I've mentioned a few times in the last few weeks, and I've answered those requests. It seems that enough people are interested that there are probably other people who can't mail me or something and would also like the information. So I have decided to post it here.. I got the information a few weeks ago from someone else. This is all of the information I currently have on the subject but I will probably be mailing them soon so if you want to check if I ever get more info just mail me.. Here goes. ________________________ Yup. The name of the company is Insite Peripherals. The drive is 20MB. It's a modified 3.5" drive that uses modified 3.5" disks. Cost is ~$800 and ~$10 respectivly. It uses an LED tracked optical servo to get the density. Availability 1-2Q '90. That's all I remember. If you ordered the developer's kit (if available) you'd still have to write your own drivers, maybe even do some hardware. from InfoWorld November 13, 1989 FLOPTICAL DRIVE USES LASER TECHNOLOGY TO READ AND WRITE DISKS Insite Peripherals has developed a new "floptical" drive that reads and writes 25- megabyte 3 1/2-inch floppy disks, as well as standard 720K and 1.44-megabyte disks. The Insite Model I325 VM Floptical disk is based on the company's Model I325 drive. The drive uses laser technol- ogy to write optical tracks on special 3 1/2- inch media. A laser diode and optical sensor mounted on the read/write head uses these servo tracks to accurately position the head on the disk. Floptical diskettes have a formatted capacity of 20.8 megabytes, the company said. The drive includes an additional head for reading and writing standard 720K and 1.44-megabyte floppy disks. The drive uses a SCSI interface, and can be used as a replacement for standard 3 1/2-inch floppy drives. In addition to use as replacements for ISA and PS/2 com- puters, the drives can also be used on Macintosh and other computers with a SCSI interface. Evaluation units of the I325 VM are expected to be available for testing in the first quarter of 1990, with full production planned for the second quarter of 1990. lnsite Peripherals, 4433 Fortran Drive. [what about Pascal & BASIC?] San Jose, CA 95134; (408) 946-8080. [ok, lame joke] - Mark Brownstein -- unknown@ucscb.ucsc.edu