monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) (08/20/88)
Here is a bit of news for everyone in quest of a hard disk for your Ami. In the August 11,1988 issue of Electronic Design there is an article on a new disk drive from Insite Peripherals. This new drive is called a "Floptical" disk drive. It is a 20.8 Mbyte removable media, 3 1/2 ", scsi interfaced, 65ms. access time hard disk. The removable Media is the same formfactor as your current 3 1/2" drive. The Name comes from the Fact that it uses a magnetic media like a normal floppy but has optical sync fields built into the media. The "diskettes" are factory formatted and are recored on at 1250 tpi. The drawback to this are they will go into your regualr drive and ANY! write by that drive will destroy the disk! The good news about these drives is they are to be priced less than $250.00 in OEM quanities and the disks are to be under $10.00 in OEM quanities. For those of you who don't know what OEM means, think LARGE. Still, they should show up at around $350-$400 in single quanities. Taint bad for a 20 meg shirt pocket sized media. CBM please look into these guys for us, OKAY?????? The destructive possibilities are a bit scary but I for one am ready to install RHD1:. The address and phone number given in the article are as follows: Insite Peripherals 2363 Calle del Mundo, Santa Clara, Ca. 95054 (408) 727-8484 James Adkission I hope this one is not vapor ware, it sounds good! Monty ************************************************************************** Oh Yes, Master Hartford is on what I hope is a permanent Vacation. This is not a Joke. I am not employed by, or otherwise compensated by, Insight Peripherials. Opinions expressed are strictly my own. **************************************************************************
karl@sugar.uu.net (Karl Lehenbauer) (08/20/88)
In article <290@sagpd1.UUCP>, monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) writes: > ...This new drive is called a > "Floptical" disk drive. It is a 20.8 Mbyte removable media, 3 1/2 ", scsi > interfaced, 65ms. access time hard disk. The removable Media is the same > formfactor as your current 3 1/2" drive. Yeah, this is in EE Times this week, too. The way it would be of *incredible* use to Amiga owners would be if it became the standard floppy drive for new Amigas and backward-compatible versions were sold for existing Amis. I know that's not likely to happen, but it would be really nice. If it didn't become such a standard, it wouldn't be of use for distributing software, tho' still of use of course to people who had them. If it did become a standard, think of games with 20 MB of images, sound and code... -- -- -- Karl Lehenbauer, karl@sugar.uu.net aka uunet!sugar!karl, +1 713 274 5184
swordfis@pnet51.cts.com (Tim Mitchell) (08/22/88)
Personally, I'm holding out for the THOR drives from Tandy. Looks like the
mass-storage solution to me.
UUCP: {rosevax, crash}!orbit!pnet51!swordfis
INET: swordfis@pnet51.cts.comewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) (08/23/88)
In article <290@sagpd1.UUCP> monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) writes: > In the August 11,1988 issue of Electronic Design there is an article >on a new disk drive from Insite Peripherals. This new drive is called a >"Floptical" disk drive. It is a 20.8 Mbyte removable media, 3 1/2 ", scsi >interfaced, 65ms. access time hard disk. The removable Media is the same >formfactor as your current 3 1/2" drive. [ ... ] The drawback >to this are they will go into your regualr drive and ANY! write by that drive >will destroy the disk! > Well, I just called these guys to find out more, largely because Monty's posting left me confused. I thought he was talking about read-only magnetic storage, but it's a bit more interesting than that. The drive takes a specially formatted 3.5" floppy on which it can store 20M. This can be read or written. In addition, the drive can read ordinary 3.5" floppies, but it can't write to them. They're projecting samples available late this year, and production early next year. Sounds neat. _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape INET: well!ewhac@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU \_ -_ Recumbent Bikes: UUCP: pacbell > !{well,unicom}!ewhac O----^o The Only Way To Fly. hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack") "Work FOR? I don't work FOR anybody! I'm just having fun." -- The Doctor
kodiak@amiga.UUCP (Robert R. Burns) (08/24/88)
In article <290@sagpd1.UUCP> monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) writes: )"Floptical" disk drive. It is a 20.8 Mbyte removable media, 3 1/2 ", scsi )... ) I hope this one is not vapor ware, it sounds good! They intend to demo at COMDEX, ship to beta sites at end of November, have production quantities 1Q89. Their beta kits will include 5 1/4" mounting adaptor, PC/AT interface board, and MS-DOS driver software. I mentioned "graphics...large storage requirements" and they seemed to resonate slightly, so there's some hope for them. I suggest "wait and see". - Kodiak -- | / _ _|' _ |/ Bob Burns . . . . .---. . |/ (_)(_)|(_\|\ {pyramid|oliveb|cbmvax]! / \ |\ /| | | __ / \ |\ Kodiak \ amiga!kodiak _______/ A \| \/ |_|_|___|/ A \ | \ Software "dedicated to the science of fun"\_________
lai@vedge.UUCP (David Lai) (08/26/88)
In article <6888@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: > The drive takes a specially formatted 3.5" floppy on which it can >store 20M. This can be read or written. In addition, the drive can read >ordinary 3.5" floppies, but it can't write to them. > They're projecting samples available late this year, and production >early next year. The Kodak 3.3 and 6.6Meg floppy's (5.25") also do the same thing. They need special pre-formatted disks. Unfortunately these preformatted disks use a fixed 17 sector/track format that is different from AmigaDOS so to make it work with the ami, I suspect one would have to write a new handler. (Is there a handler already that you can tell it number of sectors/tk, size of sector, etc..?). I guess the 20M 3.5" would be the same sort of thing. -- "What is a DJ if he can't scratch?" - Uncle Jamms Army The views expressed are those of the author, and not of Visual Edge, nor Usenet. David Lai (vedge!lai@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu || ...watmath!onfcanim!vedge!lai)
ejkst@cisunx.UUCP (Eric J. Kennedy) (08/26/88)
In article <2515@sugar.uu.net> karl@sugar.uu.net (Karl Lehenbauer) writes: >In article <290@sagpd1.UUCP>, monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) writes: >> ...This new drive is called a >> "Floptical" disk drive. It is a 20.8 Mbyte removable media, 3 1/2 ", scsi >> interfaced, 65ms. access time hard disk. The removable Media is the same >> formfactor as your current 3 1/2" drive. >If it did become a standard, think of games with 20 MB of images, sound and >code... And you though Marble Madness took a long time to load in between screens... -- ------------ Eric Kennedy ejkst@cisunx.UUCP
davidc@pyr.gatech.EDU (David Carter) (08/28/88)
The story so far, from postings quoting Electronics Design (August 11): 20.8 Mbyte unformatted, 3.5" removable media with same form factor as your 3.5" floppy, SCSI, 65ms access. In article <6888@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: > Well, I just called these guys to find out more... >In addition, the drive can read ordinary 3.5" floppies, but it can't write >to them. Looks like they're making improvements fast! According to the article in EE Times (August 22): "...the drives cannot read traditional low-density 3.5" floppies, even though they use the same form factor. But Adkisson [pres. of Insite Peripherals] said the company will be introducing drives that can read and write traditional disks in the future, and will be improving the density and performance..." Elsewhere they mention it is "...a technology that is easily scalable to 100-Mbyte disks in the near future." Although a 20 meg removable itself is wonderful, I think I'll wait till it can double as a 2nd floppy. I've always hated the fact that, even when you get a hard drive, there are still times you need a second floppy. This will solve that problem. It will also be a great way to back up those huge hard drives that are supposed to become so cheap in the next year. David Carter davidc@pyr.gatech.edu
Lee_-_Wells@cup.portal.com (09/03/88)
er, just how reliable is packing 20meg on a 3.5 inch floppy? I have enough trouble with the normal 3.5 inch floppies crashing after a couple of moinths of hard usage. I can see it now: 'error validating disk. use disk doctor to correct it' ....3 days later.. but seriously, it does sound nice, kinda like a mini bernouli box, eh? has anyone out there heard of digital paper? digital paper is a very low cost optical storage media that is only read only at this time but hopes to be read writable soon should make 3.5 inch floppies like the floptical drive really optical, eh? instead of magnetic. WARM drives (Write And Read Many, ha!) are the future. too bad Tandy has the first, THOR, I never cared for Tandy much. Lee Wells
ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) (09/05/88)
In article <695@vedge.UUCP> lai@vedge.UUCP (David Lai) writes: >In article <6888@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: >> The drive takes a specially formatted 3.5" floppy on which it can >>store 20M. [ ... ] > >The Kodak 3.3 and 6.6Meg floppy's (5.25") also do the same thing. They >need special pre-formatted disks. [ ... ] I *think* you may misunderstand. The servo tracks on the Floptical media are inscribed with lasers, and are permanent. It is therefore impossible to damage the servo tracks magnetically, since they're read optically (hence the name "Floptical"). _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape INET: well!ewhac@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU \_ -_ Recumbent Bikes: UUCP: pacbell > !{well,unicom}!ewhac O----^o The Only Way To Fly. hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack") "Work FOR? I don't work FOR anybody! I'm just having fun." -- The Doctor
elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) (09/12/88)
in article <8720@cup.portal.com>, Lee_-_Wells@cup.portal.com says: > er, just how reliable is packing 20meg on a 3.5 inch floppy? Understatement of the year: These are not ordinary floppies. > WARM drives (Write And Read Many, ha!) are the future. too bad Tandy > has the first, THOR, I never cared for Tandy much. Tandy has gotten the most advertisement. However, C Ltd., I understand, currently has a pre-production model of the Maxtor read/write optical drive ( 1 gigabyte, 40ms access time). I have seen the glossies for the Maxtor drives, and they look quite promising (they're SCSI, by the way, so no problem there). -- Eric Lee Green ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509 MISFORTUNE, n. The kind of fortune that never misses.
rchampe@hubcap.UUCP (Richard Champeaux) (09/13/88)
In article <5481@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>, elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) writes: > > WARM drives (Write And Read Many, ha!) are the future. too bad Tandy > > has the first, THOR, I never cared for Tandy much. > > Tandy has gotten the most advertisement. However, C Ltd., I > understand, currently has a pre-production model of the Maxtor > read/write optical drive ( 1 gigabyte, 40ms access time). I have seen > the glossies for the Maxtor drives, and they look quite promising > (they're SCSI, by the way, so no problem there). > From what I read in Radio Electronics, the special thing about Tandy's read/write optical drives is that they'll be compatable with audio compact discs. Also, Tandy didn't develop it, they merely bought the rights from a research lab in Oregon. > Eric Lee Green ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg Rich Champeaux Clemson University