michael.hainsworth@canremote.uucp (MICHAEL HAINSWORTH) (08/07/89)
Hi there! I recently read in a reputable magazine that Panasonic has released a 3.5" Metal Floppy Disk drive that will hold up to 11 megabytes. I'm curious to know if this drive is available yet (in the USA or preferably Canada) and if it can be hooked directly to an Amiga 590 Hard drive (This is the A500 hard drive from CBM). Any news or ideas? The A590 has a SCSI connector, and I believe it's a 25pin? Thank you in advance, Michael Hainsworth --- * Via ProDoor 3.0R
cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (08/09/89)
In article <89080709104894@masnet.uucp> (MICHAEL HAINSWORTH) writes: >Hi there! I recently read in a reputable magazine that Panasonic has >released a 3.5" Metal Floppy Disk drive that will hold up to 11 >megabytes. I'm curious to know if this drive is available yet (in the >USA or preferably Canada) and if it can be hooked directly to an Amiga >590 Hard drive (This is the A500 hard drive from CBM). InSite Peripherals in San Jose is also beginning to ramp up production on their 20.8M Floptical Drive. The drive is a 3.5" form factor, SCSI interfaced drive that takes 3.5" floppies that have one side "optical" (which is really just a bunch of hard coded servo tracks) and the other side magnetic. The Drive mechanisims will probably be retailing for something like $500 - $600, and the floppies themselves are $100 for a box of 5 ($1/Meg). They claim they will be in volume production next month. No as for hooking it up. The hookup should be straight forward since they are SCSI and the SCSI drives out there today all work. There are two areas that will need further attention. 1) Formatting, the first time you use a floptical you will have to hard format it. That means sending it a hard format command and most scsi drivers don't do that when you use the AmigaDOS format command. ('cuz it's faster to use QUICK) Generally though, people like Cltd and Microbotics have a utility that will format those puppies by sending the SCSI command. 2) The other area is in ejection. FFS in 1.3 doesn't know how to eject a disk (No DiskChange stuff in the handler) and most scsi drivers just stub out the trackdisk compatible diskchange stuff because the media isn't changeable. If Randell or whomever in C/A is responsible for those things has dealt with those issues then it should be a simple matter of plugging in the wires. Otherwise, you may have to hack around a bit. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. "A most excellent barbarian ... Genghis Kahn!"
mcp@ziebmef.uucp (Marc Plumb) (08/12/89)
The Panasonic 11 Meg drive is, as far as I know, real. Some claimed specs: 640 tracks per side, 35,000 bits per inch 16 MB unformatted, 11 MB formatted 2 Mbits/s transfer rate SCSI interface, self-formatting Average seek <60 ms; track-to track 10 ms Can read (but not write) 1MB and 2MB disks "micro-stepping" motors give high speed and 2 um tracking accuracy Evaluation units supposedly available in July, and a list price of $250. The info I have has this address attached, but it's not labeled as a "contact address" or anything: Panasonic Industrial Co. Memory Systems Division 1600 McCandless Drive Milpitas, California 95035 (408) 262-2200 -- -Colin Plumb
Sentry@cup.portal.com (Marcus Hungor Tran) (08/15/89)
Yes, the 11meg floppy is real. It's been in production since June 1989. The bad news is: NCR (a certain big and powerful company) has exclusive rights to test and use the JU3511. In another word, they HOG the whole project during the first year. Panasonic also would like to see how this product would fare through NCR first before releasing it to other OEMs & distributors. Last time I talked to the sales manager who handles the JU3511, he said I wouldn't see the drive anywhere else (except NCR) until July 1990. I can't even get my hands on any application manual for the drive and I WORK for the Panasonic disk drive division. ***** Disclaimer : Hey, don't quote me. I only work here *******************