[comp.sys.next] 2.88 meg floppy drives

gilgalad@caen.engin.umich.edu (Ralph Seguin) (11/28/90)

Howdy.  What is the educational price on the 2.88 meg floppy drives?  Do they
use standard high density floppies?  The ones that NeXT sells are VERY
expensive...

			Thanks, Ralph

Ralph Seguin			gilgalad@dip.eecs.umich.edu
536 South Forest Apt. #915	gilgalad@caen.engin.umich.edu
Ann Arbor, MI 48104		(313) 662-4805

flank@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Brett Jacobson) (11/28/90)

In article <1990Nov27.235401.4109@engin.umich.edu> gilgalad@caen.engin.umich.edu (Ralph Seguin) writes:
>Howdy.  What is the educational price on the 2.88 meg floppy drives?  Do they
>use standard high density floppies?  The ones that NeXT sells are VERY
>expensive...
>
>			Thanks, Ralph

According to some research into the new 2.88Mb floppy (which is currently
only made by Toshiba), it required a special formulation, that is NOTHING
like the current HD formula.  The 2.88Mb floppy is 4Mb unformatted (so where
did all that space go?) and has twice as many sectors/track as teh 1.44Mb
HD disks, otherwise it is the same.

Chris Petrilli
(Forwarded from petrilli@dogface.UUCP)

scott@mcs-server.gac.edu (Scott Hess) (11/28/90)

In article <1990Nov27.235401.4109@engin.umich.edu> gilgalad@caen.engin.umich.edu (Ralph Seguin) writes:
>Howdy.  What is the educational price on the 2.88 meg floppy drives?  Do they
>use standard high density floppies?  The ones that NeXT sells are VERY
>expensive...

The reason for the price is that they must use, again, a better substrate,
which costs more.

What you _can_ do, until the price falls, is fall back to 1.44M high
density.  You lose some convenience, but as of yet the media is much
less than 1/2 the price, so it would just necessitate more swapping.
In fact, most software will probably be distributed at that density,
to start with, because that's where the upper-end of most duplicating
services now reside (though there are companies who are moving to
2.88M, also).
--
scott hess
scott@gac.edu
Independent NeXT Developer	(Stuart)
GAC Undergrad			(Horrid.  Simply Horrid.  I mean the work!)
<I still speak for nobody>

sritchie@cs.ubc.ca (Stuart Ritchie) (11/28/90)

In article <40277@ut-emx.uucp> flank@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Brett Jacobson) writes:
>According to some research into the new 2.88Mb floppy (which is currently
>only made by Toshiba), it required a special formulation, that is NOTHING
>like the current HD formula.  The 2.88Mb floppy is 4Mb unformatted (so where
>did all that space go?) and has twice as many sectors/track as teh 1.44Mb
>HD disks, otherwise it is the same.
>
>Chris Petrilli
>(Forwarded from petrilli@dogface.UUCP)

So I can't drill a hole somewhere in my 1.44's to double their
capacity?  You mean, we have to pay twice as much now?
That's no fun.  Whaddya think I bought a drill press for?

Sleepy Stu...

cyliax@ecn.purdue.edu (Ingo Cyliax) (11/28/90)

Teac also makes a 2.88Mb floppy drive, but I have no idea on wether
it will fit (physcially or electrically) in a NeXTStation. It should,
however, use the same media and format.

-ingo

--
/*                Ingo Cyliax    ECN, Electrical Engineering Bldg.          *
 *      cyliax@ecn.purdue.edu    Purdue University, W. Lafayette,IN 47907   *
 *          ing@cc.purdue.edu    Work: (317) 494-9523                       *
 *         cyliax@pur-ee.UUCP    Home: (317) 474-0031                       */

madler@piglet.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) (11/29/90)

Scott Hess estimates:
>> What you _can_ do, until the price falls, is fall back to 1.44M high
>> density.  You lose some convenience, but as of yet the media is much
>> less than 1/2 the price, so it would just necessitate more swapping.

The NeXT price for 2.88M's is $8, while I can get 1.44M's for $0.79 from
MEI.  This makes the price per bit of a 1.44M one-fifth that of a 2.88M.
Hopefully, NeXTconnection will offer the disks for a more reasonable
price right away, and once other manufacturer's adopt 2.88M, I'd expect
to be able to get them for about $2 from MEI one year from now.

Mark Adler
madler@piglet.caltech.edu

blenko-tom@cs.yale.edu (Tom Blenko) (11/29/90)

|>Howdy.  What is the educational price on the 2.88 meg floppy drives?  Do they
|>use standard high density floppies?  The ones that NeXT sells are VERY
|>expensive...
|
|The reason for the price is that they must use, again, a better substrate,
|which costs more.

The one and only reason for the price is that that is where the seller
currently believes he can maximize his profit in the targeted
marketplace.

The same applies for NeXT machines, Macs, optical disks, optical disk
media, computer memory, software of every variety, and most anything
else that gets discussed on the net.

	Yours for better high school education in the largest
	capitalistic economy in the world,

	Tom

slone@sctc.com (Joe Paisley) (11/29/90)

Can someone post the model number of the 2.88M floppy drive in the 
new NeXT machines.  I have an '030 cube and would like to do a
low-cost floppy upgrade (ie. buy a bare drive from a rep and install
it myself).  I am assuming the NeXT is using a COTS drive mechanism
with no modifications.

By the way, I picked up a pristine demo cube in the Businessland firesale
and couldn't be more satisfied.

Brent Slone
slone@sctc.com

gilgalad@caen.engin.umich.edu (Ralph Seguin) (11/29/90)

Well, this discussion of costs of various high density media is all well and
fine, but I was more concerned with the cost of the drive, not the disks.  I
should have been more specific.  Any answers here?
			Thanks, Ralph

Ralph Seguin			gilgalad@dip.eecs.umich.edu
536 South Forest Apt. #915	gilgalad@caen.engin.umich.edu
Ann Arbor, MI 48104		(313) 662-4805