4526P@NAVPGS.BITNET (LT Scott A. Norton, USN) (05/07/87)
Although the WORM drives for the IBM PS/2 have gotten the most attention lately, there are some other drives of similar capability from other manufacturers. An article in the May 4 issue of Electronic Engineering Times announces that Information Storage Inc. has cut the price of its 240 Mbtye WORM disk drive. $2,595 gets you a 5.5 inch full-height drive that fits in an IBM-PC or clone. An external version of the drive is $200 more, and SCSI interface is another $100. The disks themselves are $125 for 240-Mbyte, double sided platters. The IBM-PC version uses a disk operating system that makes the drive look like a regular disk drive to MS-DOS. Or, you can pay $500 and get Xenix. For the Amiga owner that is contemplating the IBM WORM unit, the ISI drive seems to me to be the better choice. It is SCSI compatible, so you can use existing SCSI units. Of course, there is still the matter of a device driver that makes best use of the disk, but that requirement is no suprise. It does look like A-2000 owners will be able to use the bridge card and existing software to access the WORM drive like any other MS-DOS, IBM-PC device. For the future, ISI will be releasing a 1-Gbyte unit by the end of the year. They plan on a cost less than twice that of the current 240-Meg drive. Five bonus points to anyone who can come up with a better name for this type disk than WORM. When I think about SCSI WORM drives, I imagine disgusting images of cowboys rounding up scuzzy worms. Yuch! LT Scott A. Norton, USN Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, CA 93943-5018 4526P@NavPGS.BITNET --- "George took the worm and threw it across the pool to the other side, among the brush. 'What do you want of a scuzzy worm anyways?' 'I could write to it with my thumb while we walked along,' said Lenny." -John Steinbeck, "Of Worms and Men"
farren@hoptoad.uucp (Mike Farren) (05/09/87)
In article <0244526P@NAVPGS> 4526P@NAVPGS.BITNET (LT Scott A. Norton, USN) writes: > >An article in the May 4 issue of Electronic Engineering Times >announces that Information Storage Inc. has cut the price of its >240 Mbtye WORM disk drive. $2,595 gets you a 5.5 inch >full-height drive that fits in an IBM-PC or clone. An external >version of the drive is $200 more, and SCSI interface is another >$100. The disks themselves are $125 for 240-Mbyte, double sided >platters. > >The IBM-PC version uses a disk operating system that makes the >drive look like a regular disk drive to MS-DOS. Or, you can pay >$500 and get Xenix. The IBM drive is $2000-$2400 and the media is $65 per disk, making it a bit cheaper than the ISI device. Also, the IBM drive is used as a network device by MS-DOS in order to get around the MS-DOS 32 Meg. disk limitation. I believe the IBM drives are being made by Mitsubishi, and might be available cheaper from them a little bit down the road. -- ---------------- "... if the church put in half the time on covetousness Mike Farren that it does on lust, this would be a better world ..." hoptoad!farren Garrison Keillor, "Lake Wobegon Days"
jbickers@templar.actrix.co.nz (John Bickers) (10/04/90)
Does anyone know the price/availability of WORM drives for the Amiga? Preferably for the 3000, or 2000/30. Not the 1000 or 500... :) Is there an issue of BYTE I should look up for a reference? :) Email replies, please, unless you judge otherwise. -- *** John Bickers, TAP, NZAmigaUG. jbickers@templar.actrix.co.nz *** *** "All I can do now is wait for the noise." - Numan ***