azevedo@lll-crg.ARPA (Stephen Azevedo) (02/20/85)
Does anyone out there know about the availability of optical or laser disk storage for mini or micro computers? What I am looking for is reliable write-once storage for an inspection system with maybe 10 to 20 Giga-byte of on-line reference image information. I realize optical disks or compact disks exist, but are there controllers for these beasts that plug into some standard bus on some kind of computer with some kind of driver at some reasonable price? The largest Winchester disks I've heard of so far are the new 700 Mbyte (Fujitsu) Eagles so I'm not wild about using magnet disks for this application. Also, the automatic tape libraries are too slow and bulky for what we need. Am I missing something else? Thank you in advance for your help -- I'll be glad to re-post what I find. Steve Azevedo (azevedo@lll-crg.arpa)
tim@conejo.UUCP (James T. Kehres) (02/24/85)
In article <398@lll-crg.ARPA> azevedo@lll-crg.ARPA (Stephen Azevedo) writes: > > Does anyone out there know about the availability of optical >or laser disk storage for mini or micro computers? What I am looking >for is reliable write-once storage for an inspection system with maybe >10 to 20 Giga-byte of on-line reference image information. I realize >optical disks or compact disks exist, but are there controllers for >these beasts that plug into some standard bus on some kind of computer >with some kind of driver at some reasonable price? > The largest Winchester disks I've heard of so far are the new >700 Mbyte (Fujitsu) Eagles so I'm not wild about using magnet disks for >this application. Also, the automatic tape libraries are too slow and >bulky for what we need. Am I missing something else? Thank you in >advance for your help -- I'll be glad to re-post what I find. > > Steve Azevedo (azevedo@lll-crg.arpa) You might try looking at Hitachi's 301 series optical disk subsystems. They were showing two units at the December Comdex show. I believe that the IEEE-488 interface is available for the drive, making interfacing to most computers possible. One bad point (other than the interface) would be the access time (average = 0.25 secones). Below is an excerpt from their literature: "The 301 will be available in two configurations. The basic configuration combines a formatter controller with from one to four disk units, providing up to 2.6 gigabytes of storage per disk. The library configuration offers up to 80 gigabytes of storage. It incorporates a formatter controller with powerful, user-friendly software, one or two disk units, and an automatic changer for up to 32 disk cartridges" Tim Kehres Conejo Office Systems San Jose, California {amd,intelca,nsc,sun,pesnta,twg}!conejo!tim (408) 286-5170 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
allgair@fritz.UUCP (Ed Allgair) (02/27/85)
Hitachi's 301 series drives were mentioned for use in a storage library
with automatic changer, software, etc. We build a version of this, as well
as related equipment. To avoid making a sales article out of this, I will
forward any mail (either kind) to our Sales/Marketing cats for further
response by US mail.
USnail: Ed Allgair
FileNet Corporation
3530 Hyland Avenue
Costa Mesa, California 92626