kruger@16bits.dec.com (Hart for CCCP chief in '88) (01/13/88)
According to the Byte article (sometime in the last year) the reason head seeks are so slow is that the mass of the head is currently much greater. But efforts are being made to remove the active parts from the head. If it can be made as light as a hard drive head, then it essentially IS a hard drive head as far as speed goes. Already, there is very little difference in the burst reading speed (well, that can't be explained by the lower rotational speed). I would think that a fiberoptic-piped read/write head would be practical and popular within 5 years. dov p.s. Maxtor's unit stores 800 Meg, and has an access time of 130ms. Not good compared to hard disks, but faster than most others, and possibly comparable to a floppy.