[comp.sys.amiga.hardware] 88MB SyQuest

metahawk@itsgw.rpi.edu (Wayne G Rigby) (04/24/91)

In article <177031@netw23.uucp> val@netw23.uucp (Oberon Kenobi) writes:
>In article <1991Apr10.154645.10484@mack.uit.no>, terjepe@stud.cs.uit.no (Terje Pedersen) writes:
>> Doesn't anyone know anything about the new 1.52 MB disc drive to Amiga ? I
>> thought that such a drive would be the first thing any Amiga owner would want
>> to buy, even before a hard disc. Even with a hard disc you are bound to have
>> a bunch of disks. (unless you have a 1.2 GB drive...and who does.?)
>>
>> TP
>
>     There is a 2.88MB SCSI disk drive available as a NeXT peripheral.  Since
>it's SCSI, it can be used on an Amiga.  Unfortunately, it's price is about
>$500, so I'd rather get a Syquest 44MB drive.
>
>-- 
>================================================================================
>| "vi?  Because I don't have a real editor." -- U*x user | val@csulx.weber.edu |
>================================================================================

You might also want to look at the 88MB SyQuest dirve.  The cartridges are
exactly the same size and construction.  The drive itself is the same size
also, but now 88 MegaBytes can be shoved on the cartridges.  Anyone have
any prices or know if the cartridges are exactly the same or a more 
expensive higher density format?

                                   Wayne Rigby
                                   Computer and Systems Engineer (in training)
                                   Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
                                   metahawk@rpi.edu

jbn35564@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (J.B. Nicholson) (04/24/91)

In <6msga2-@rpi.edu> metahawk@itsgw.rpi.edu (Wayne G Rigby) writes:
>You might also want to look at the 88MB SyQuest dirve.  The cartridges are
>exactly the same size and construction.  The drive itself is the same size
>also, but now 88 MegaBytes can be shoved on the cartridges.  Anyone have
>any prices or know if the cartridges are exactly the same or a more 
>expensive higher density format?
>
>                                   Wayne Rigby
>                                   Computer and Systems Engineer (in training)
>                                   Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
>                                   metahawk@rpi.edu
>

I know that the 88MB SyQuest can read but not write to the 44MB cartridges.

According to MacWorld (May 1991):
"The device will be available from PLI, MicroNet, and Mass Micro, with other
 vendors expected to follow.  The PLI drive, called the Infinity 88 Turbo,
 carries a $1595 list price and was slated to begin shipping in March.  For
 more information, contact PLI at 415/657-2211."

Micronet's 88MB with the SyQuest mechanism is called the MR-90 (their 44MB
Syquest drive is called the MR-45).  Their sales dept. is 714/837-6033;
FAX 714/837-1164; AppleLink D1656; Compuserve 76004,1611.

I don't have an exact price on the 88MB SyQuest cartridges yet, but the
cheapest 44MB SyQuest cartridge I've found is $64 from MacLand 800/333-3353.

If anyone sees anything cheaper, please let me know.

Jeff
--
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "If you hear an onion ring - answer it."                    J.B. Nicholson |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| jeffo@uiuc.edu (Internet)              These opinions are mine, that's all.|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

cpmwc@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Matthew W Crowd) (04/24/91)

In article <6msga2-@rpi.edu> metahawk@itsgw.rpi.edu (Wayne G Rigby) writes:
>In article <177031@netw23.uucp> val@netw23.uucp (Oberon Kenobi) writes:
>>In article <1991Apr10.154645.10484@mack.uit.no>, terjepe@stud.cs.uit.no (Terje Pedersen) writes:
>>> Doesn't anyone know anything about the new 1.52 MB disc drive to Amiga ? I
>>> thought that such a drive would be the first thing any Amiga owner would want
>>> to buy, even before a hard disc. Even with a hard disc you are bound to have
>>> a bunch of disks. (unless you have a 1.2 GB drive...and who does.?)
>>>
>>> TP
>>
>>     There is a 2.88MB SCSI disk drive available as a NeXT peripheral.  Since
>>it's SCSI, it can be used on an Amiga.  Unfortunately, it's price is about
>>$500, so I'd rather get a Syquest 44MB drive.
>>
>>-- 
>>================================================================================
>>| "vi?  Because I don't have a real editor." -- U*x user | val@csulx.weber.edu |
>>================================================================================
>
>You might also want to look at the 88MB SyQuest dirve.  The cartridges are
>exactly the same size and construction.  The drive itself is the same size
>also, but now 88 MegaBytes can be shoved on the cartridges.  Anyone have
>any prices or know if the cartridges are exactly the same or a more 
>expensive higher density format?
>
>                                   Wayne Rigby
>                                   Computer and Systems Engineer (in training)
>                                   Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
>                                   metahawk@rpi.edu

There is a 2.88MB drive for the IBM PC as well, probably the same drive?

matt.

dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) (04/26/91)

In article <6msga2-@rpi.edu> metahawk@itsgw.rpi.edu (Wayne G Rigby) writes:
>In article <177031@netw23.uucp> val@netw23.uucp (Oberon Kenobi) writes:
>>In article <1991Apr10.154645.10484@mack.uit.no>, terjepe@stud.cs.uit.no (Terje Pedersen) writes:
>>> Doesn't anyone know anything about the new 1.52 MB disc drive to Amiga ? I
>>> thought that such a drive would be the first thing any Amiga owner would want
>>> to buy, even before a hard disc. Even with a hard disc you are bound to have
>>> a bunch of disks. (unless you have a 1.2 GB drive...and who does.?)
>>>
>>> TP
>>
>>     There is a 2.88MB SCSI disk drive available as a NeXT peripheral.  Since
>>it's SCSI, it can be used on an Amiga.  Unfortunately, it's price is about
>>$500, so I'd rather get a Syquest 44MB drive.
>>
>>-- 
>>================================================================================
>>| "vi?  Because I don't have a real editor." -- U*x user | val@csulx.weber.edu |
>>================================================================================
>
>You might also want to look at the 88MB SyQuest dirve.  The cartridges are
>exactly the same size and construction.  The drive itself is the same size
>also, but now 88 MegaBytes can be shoved on the cartridges.  Anyone have
>any prices or know if the cartridges are exactly the same or a more 
>expensive higher density format?
>
>                                   Wayne Rigby
>                                   Computer and Systems Engineer (in training)
>                                   Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
>                                   metahawk@rpi.edu

  Just get a floptical drive. It is about $600, with 20 megs per disk, and
t uses standard 3.5 floppies also. Great for a second drive...


-- 
    David Tiberio  SUNY Stony Brook 2-3481  AMIGA  DDD-MEN  Tomas Arce 
           Any students from SUNY Oswego? Please let me know! :)

                   Un ragazzo di Casalbordino, Italia.

metahawk@itsgw.rpi.edu (Wayne G Rigby) (04/27/91)

In article <1991Apr26.130902.24985@sbcs.sunysb.edu> dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) writes:
>
>  Just get a floptical drive. It is about $600, with 20 megs per disk, and
>t uses standard 3.5 floppies also. Great for a second drive...
>
>
>-- 
>    David Tiberio  SUNY Stony Brook 2-3481  AMIGA  DDD-MEN  Tomas Arce 
>           Any students from SUNY Oswego? Please let me know! :)
>
>                   Un ragazzo di Casalbordino, Italia.

Huh, where did you find this little gadget.  The cheapest 3.5 flopicals
I've seen are in the $3000-4000 range and hold about 125 Megs.  I've
never heard of any flopical drive that can accept normal disks.
(Of course if your info. is true, I think I could order a few 100.)

       "Anything is possible"                         Metahawk
               Any guesses?                           metahawk@rpi.edu

rich@documail.UUCP (Rich McCallister) (04/29/91)

In article <kgwg44+@rpi.edu> metahawk@itsgw.rpi.edu (Wayne G Rigby) writes:
>In article <1991Apr26.130902.24985@sbcs.sunysb.edu> dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) writes:
>>  Just get a floptical drive. It is about $600, with 20 megs per disk, and
>>t uses standard 3.5 floppies also. Great for a second drive...
>
>Huh, where did you find this little gadget.  The cheapest 3.5 flopicals
>I've seen are in the $3000-4000 range and hold about 125 Megs.  I've
>never heard of any flopical drive that can accept normal disks.

    At the NCGA show in Chicago last week, Commodore was sharing a booth with
a distributor that was showing a 20 Meg floptical 3.5" floptical drive. They
said the price was about $600 (I forget the exact amount), and that the media
cost about $20 each. I *think* they said it would also read standard 880K
floppies, but am not positive. It had an imbedded SCSI controller.

monty@sagpd1 (05/01/91)

In article <345@documail.UUCP> rich@documail.UUCP (Rich McCallister) writes:
>In article <kgwg44+@rpi.edu> metahawk@itsgw.rpi.edu (Wayne G Rigby) writes:
>>In article <1991Apr26.130902.24985@sbcs.sunysb.edu> dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) writes:
>>>  Just get a floptical drive. It is about $600, with 20 megs per disk, and
>>>t uses standard 3.5 floppies also. Great for a second drive...
>>
>>Huh, where did you find this little gadget.  The cheapest 3.5 flopicals
>>I've seen are in the $3000-4000 range and hold about 125 Megs.  I've
>>never heard of any flopical drive that can accept normal disks.
>
>    At the NCGA show in Chicago last week, Commodore was sharing a booth with
>a distributor that was showing a 20 Meg floptical 3.5" floptical drive. They
>said the price was about $600 (I forget the exact amount), and that the media
>cost about $20 each. I *think* they said it would also read standard 880K
>floppies, but am not positive. It had an imbedded SCSI controller.

    Was that other party selling/displaying the floptical drive by Insite
    Peripherals ?? They have been trying to get out a 20 Meg 3 1/2" drive
    for about two-three years now. They had one model available last year
    but it did not read 880k disks. They were redesigning the unit to fit
    in the 1" high form factor and to handle reading/writing of 880k disks.
    The unit uses "special 3 1/2 disks" in that they have optical tracking
    information encoded on the magnetic media, hence the "floptical" 
    designtion. You can not get 20meg storage on a "standard" 3 1/2" floppy
    with out this optical track system. They were also selling the encoder
    to place this optical information on disks (to OEM's only).

    I have been following this device for a while, but had about given up
    ever seeing them reach production. I even passed on literature to the 
    CBM rep at Comdex two years ago (hoping they would put one in the A500).

    The target price was supposed to be under $300 but I guess they haven't
    hit that target if the above pricing is correct.


    Monty Saine

dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) (05/02/91)

In article <kgwg44+@rpi.edu> metahawk@itsgw.rpi.edu (Wayne G Rigby) writes:
>In article <1991Apr26.130902.24985@sbcs.sunysb.edu> dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) writes:
>>
>>  Just get a floptical drive. It is about $600, with 20 megs per disk, and
>>t uses standard 3.5 floppies also. Great for a second drive...
>>
>>
>>-- 
>>    David Tiberio  SUNY Stony Brook 2-3481  AMIGA  DDD-MEN  Tomas Arce 
>>           Any students from SUNY Oswego? Please let me know! :)
>>
>>                   Un ragazzo di Casalbordino, Italia.
>
>Huh, where did you find this little gadget.  The cheapest 3.5 flopicals
>I've seen are in the $3000-4000 range and hold about 125 Megs.  I've
>never heard of any flopical drive that can accept normal disks.
>(Of course if your info. is true, I think I could order a few 100.)
>
>       "Anything is possible"                         Metahawk
>               Any guesses?                           metahawk@rpi.edu

  I first heard about it last November. But at the New York World of Amiga
show I saw the drive with my own eyes. It uses optical 3.5 inch disks, that
look nearly identical to your stanbdard 3.5 floppies (df0:, df1:). They store
20 megs per optical floppy. The drive reads/writes to 880k floppies as well.
It is a SCSI device, with 65ms access (better than a floppy or most
optical drives anyway). It is the same size as an internal floppy, but if
used externally then it does have a larger case. The cost is $600 internal,
and $750 external. I think the company is called Digital Micronics. They 
also make some sort of 60 mhz graphics/video board.


-- 
    David Tiberio  SUNY Stony Brook 2-3481  AMIGA  DDD-MEN  Tomas Arce 
           Any students from SUNY Oswego? Please let me know! :)

                   Un ragazzo di Casalbordino, Italia.

pk@wet.UUCP (Philip King) (05/06/91)

In article <1991May1.163144.12769@sagpd1> monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) writes:
>    Was that other party selling/displaying the floptical drive by Insite
>    Peripherals ?? They have been trying to get out a 20 Meg 3 1/2" drive
>    for about two-three years now. They had one model available last year
>
>    I have been following this device for a while, but had about given up
>    ever seeing them reach production. I even passed on literature to the 
>    CBM rep at Comdex two years ago (hoping they would put one in the A500).
 
I have heard from 2 or 3 different places that Commodore has plans to be
one of the first companies to purchase large quantities of the Insite 
drive for use in their products.  The most recent rumour was in a magazine
that, as I recall, wasn't even Amiga oriented- like Infoworld or something
like that.
 
I sure hope that gesture of yours at Comdex was instrumental in getting
this product into the Amiga!  What a happy world it would be if this
kind of thing happened often...
 
 
 

				Philip
				pk@wet.uucp
				pk@wet.uucp
				{cca.ucsf.edu,hoptoad,claris}!wet!pk