ar4@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Piper Keairnes) (01/17/90)
In reference to the message posted to comp.sys.mac about Floptical drives ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The prospect of purchasing a 20+ meg SCSI Floptical drive thats mechanism is the same size as a regular 3.5" drive intrigues me. I have a few questions: Do the disks look very similar to the standard 3.5" ?? What would you imagine the cost would be?? Has anyone heard more info about the drive systems?? Reliability, availability, etc? Please respond with any info or even rumors that you have heard... Thanks! +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Piper | ar4@mace.cc.purdue.edu | General Consultant | | Keairnes | Macintosh Specialist | Purdue Univ. Computing Center | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
mjkobb@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael J Kobb) (01/17/90)
Yes, please respond with any info on these laser-aligned (I think) floppies. POST it, please! --Mike
tomk@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (Tom Karches) (01/19/90)
In article <3860@mace.cc.purdue.edu>, ar4@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Piper Keairnes) writes: > In reference to the message posted to comp.sys.mac about Floptical drives > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > The prospect of purchasing a 20+ meg SCSI Floptical drive thats mechanism is > the same size as a regular 3.5" drive intrigues me. I have a few questions: > > Do the disks look very similar to the standard 3.5" ?? They look exactly like standard 3 1/2 floppies. The only difference is that they have had servo tracks burned into the surface of the disk with a laser. The read/write head has both a laser read assembly and a magnetic read/write assembly. The laser uses the embedded servo tracks to align the magnetic read/write head more precisely, allowing more concentric tracks and consequently higher storage capacity. > What would you imagine the cost would be?? I have understood that the cost is planned to be about the same as the cost of a 20MB Seagate drive (to OEM's) > Has anyone heard more info about the drive systems?? See my response to your first question > Reliability, availability, etc? Not available now, probably later this year. > > Please respond with any info or even rumors that you have heard... Glad to have obliged. As you may have noticed, I have been following this for quite some time. This stuff was announced over a year ago. If I was the least bit cynical, I would start wondering if this drive really exists. > > Thanks! You're welcome. > > +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ > | Piper | ar4@mace.cc.purdue.edu | General Consultant | > | Keairnes | Macintosh Specialist | Purdue Univ. Computing Center | > +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ -- ############################################################################### # Tom Karches Disclaimer : I didn't say it. # # tomk@attctc.Dallas.TX.US If I said it, I didn't mean it. # ###############################################################################
ar4@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Piper Keairnes) (08/22/90)
Does anyone know what ever became of Floptical drives? I would be very interested in buying one... if they're not vaporware. --Piper Keairnes ar4@mace.cc.purdue.edu
ephraim@think.com (Ephraim Vishniac) (08/22/90)
In article <5377@mace.cc.purdue.edu> ar4@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Piper Keairnes) writes: > Does anyone know what ever became of Floptical drives? I would >be very interested in buying one... if they're not vaporware. I assume you're talking about units like the Insite I325 20meg 3.5" floptical. They weren't vaporware (I've got an evaluation unit at home), but they are now. According to a note in BYTE a couple of months back, they decided to incorporate auto-eject and a wider variety of disk formats before marketing them. The unit I've got has manual eject and supports only one format (the 20meg format). -- Ephraim Vishniac ephraim@think.com ThinkingCorp@applelink.apple.com Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142 One of the flaws in the anarchic bopper society was the ease with which such crazed rumors could spread.