Harvey_Taylor@mindlink.UUCP (Harvey Taylor) (03/23/91)
There are several High Capacity Floppies that have been announced &
some of which you can buy. In no particular order:
1) Brier
2) Insite
3) Panasonic
4) Konica
5) NEC
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1) Brier
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[Available to OEMs as far as I know.]
Brier Technology
2363 Bering Drive
San Jose, CA 95131
(408)435-8463
CAPACITY unformatted 25.0 meg
formatted 21.4 meg
CONFIGURATION
Number of disks 1
Data Surfaces 2
Data heads 2
Servo System T^3
Tracks per surface 516
Track density (TPI) 777
Track capacity (bytes typical) 20480
Blocks per drive (512 byte) 42080
Blocks per surface (512 byte) 21040
Blocks per track (typical 512 byte) 40
MEDIA (flexible diskette) 3.5"
PERFORMANCE
Actuator Linear voice coil motor
Seek time (includes setting)
Track to track (ms) 15
Average (ms) 35
Maximum (ms) 70
Average latency (ms) 41.6
Rotation speed (RPM) 720
Data transfer rate
To/From the media (megabits/sec) 2.2
To/from the buffer (megabytes/sec) 1.25
Start time 1 sec
Stop time 1 sec
READ/WRITE
Interface SCSI
Recording method BRLL
Recording density (BPI) 26000
COMPATIBILITY the BR3225 (not BR3020) reads IBM formatted floppy disks
Dimensions L: 5.75", W: 4.0", H: 1.625"
Weight: 1.6 pounds
Power requirements (*)
DC Input +12 volts DC +5 volts DC
Power dissipation <9 watts (operational-seeking)
* Power management algorithms reduce power to an average of 2.0 watts
for typical applications.
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2) Insite
---------
[Available to OEMs as far as I know.]
Insite Peripherals
4433 Fortran Drive
San Jose, CA 95134-2302
(408)946-8080
CAPACITY unformatted 25 megs
formatted 20.8 megs
Recording density 23980 BPI (RLL)
Transfer from DISK 1.6 Mbit/Sec
Buffer transfer rate 2 Mbyte/Sec
Average Seek time 65 msec
Settle time 15 msec
Motor start time 750 msec
# of read/write heads 2
Track density 1250 TPI
Cylinders 755
Tracks 1510
Rotational speed 720 rpm
Power dissipation 6 watt average
Data reliability <1 error unrecoverable error per 10**11 bits
Seek errors <1 error per 10**6 seeks
Drive dimensions H: 1.625" W: 4.0" D 5.91"
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3) Panasonic
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[Not yet released as far as I know.]
Panasonic Industrial Co.
Memory Systems Division
1600 McCandless Drive
Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 262-2200
The Memory Systems Division of Panasonic Industrial Co. recently announced
a disk drive that will put 11 megabytes of data on a newly developed 3.5
inch metal floppy disk. The large capacity floppy disk drive, called the
3511, is equipped with an embedded SCSI controller and encoder with a
micro-stepping motor, and has a self-formatting function to initialize the
media, according to the company.
The 3511 large-capacity floppy disk drive is also read-only compatible
with conventional 1-megabyte and 2-megabyte 3.5 inch disks, according to
Panasonic Industrial. The magnetic media, which has an unformatted
capacity of 16 megabytes, has a formatted capacity of 11 megabytes and a
linear recording density of 35,000 bits per inch with 640 tracks on each
side, according to the company. The metal disk and two recording heads
increase the linear recording density, and a micor-stepping motor with an
encoder allows high-speed access and high-precision tracking of plus or
minus 2 micrometers.
The 3511's average access time is less than 60 milliseconds and
track-to-tack time is less than 10 milliseconds, according to Panasonic
Industrial. The drive's data transfer rate is 2 megabits per second,
according to the company. Evaluation units of the 3511 floppy disk drive
will be available in the second quarter, with production quantities
scheduled for July. The 3511 drive will list for $250.
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4) Konica
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[Still available?]
The drive, Konica KT-510, is a 10 meg floppy which uses a SCSI
interface. The diskettes are standard type 5 1/4" floppies with a 650
oersted rated media and are specially formatted by Konica with 480 tracks
per inch. The diskettes contain special optical coding which is used in
conjunction with the optical tracking mechanism on the drive itself. The
optic system maintains info on direction, velocity and location. Thus, the
drive can accurately seek to tracks and sectors despite the high data
density. Diskettes are typically high level formatted at 350 tracks of 30
sectors each. The head mechanism is driven by a voice coil actuator and
has an average seek of 75 ms and an average track-to-track of 20 ms. Thus,
it is quite similar to an ST-225's specs. The motor runs at 600 RPM. With
special drivers the drive can be downward compatible to read 48 or 96 tpi
diskettes. Mounting is similar to any 5 1/4" floppy drive.
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5) NEC
---------
[Not yet released as far as I know.]
NEC
1414 Massachusetts Ave.
Boxborough, MA 01719
(508)264-8939
Embedded servo data
12 Mbyte
Barium-Ferrite 3.5" disks
431 tpi
360 rpm
References:
----------
Byte, Oct 1990, Page 301, Megafloppies by Stephen Satchell
Byte, Sept 1990, Page 188, Stor/Mor Review
A Guide to Optical Storage Technology by J.A. McCormick
Dow-Jones-Irwin 1990, ISBN 1-55623-320-5
---
Pointers to other high capacity floppies would be appreciated.
-het
"Kill them all! God will know his own." -the Abbot of Citeaux
Harvey Taylor Meta Media Productions
uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!Harvey_Taylor
a186@mindlink.UUCPPYC118@uriacc.uri.edu (Rasiel) (03/23/91)
Well the subject says it all. Anyone got any more info on this long-heard-of drive that can use regular 3.5" floppies or special 20 meg disks? If this product ever hits the shelf I cannot see why in the world anyone would ever need a hard drive. Unless of course this special media is too expensive. I first heard of this drive last year and back then it was rumored to be out 'soon' (in computerese terms). This baby's gotta be the storage answer to computers barring all but the prohibitively expensive R/W optical CD's, no? Rasiel (Am I getting to be a nuisance? :))
ckp@grebyn.com (Checkpoint Technologies) (03/23/91)
In article <48596@nigel.ee.udel.edu> Rasiel <PYC118@uriacc.uri.edu> writes: >Well the subject says it all. Anyone got any more info on this long-heard-of >drive that can use regular 3.5" floppies or special 20 meg disks? If this >product ever hits the shelf I cannot see why in the world anyone would ever >need a hard drive. Obviously you've never been in the presence of a 660 Meg 15ms 1.5MB/s hard drive. Sometimes you've just gotta have one. (I have on info on the Floptical, sorry.) -- First comes the logo: C H E C K P O I N T T E C H N O L O G I E S / / ckp@grebyn.com \\ / / Then, the disclaimer: All expressed opinions are, indeed, opinions. \ / o Now for the witty part: I'm pink, therefore, I'm spam! \/
DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu (03/24/91)
In article <48596@nigel.ee.udel.edu>, PYC118@uriacc.uri.edu (Rasiel) says: >drive that can use regular 3.5" floppies or special 20 meg disks? If this >product ever hits the shelf I cannot see why in the world anyone would ever >need a hard drive. Unless of course this special media is too expensive. Well, for one thing the floptical is much slower than a typical hard drive. Another problem is that the media wears out in a month if you use it like a hard drive. (According to a user of a 10MB 51/4 drive). Also, it's fairly expensive (>$300 in 1000s). For that price you could get an 80MB hard drive, at least. The media is supposed to be very cheap, though (eventually). On the other hand, like everyone else, I want one. :-) -- Dan Babcock
stevek@amiglynx.UUCP (Steve Krulewitz) (03/26/91)
Are there any prices availible on any of thoes drives? Also, if I wanted to
buy one - I have a Supra Hard Card with a Quantum controller - could I use it
with the Amiga? Do the proper handlers/mountlists exist?
-=+ Steve Krulewitz +=- -=+ Fair Lawn, NJ +=- -=+
UUNET!tronbox!amiglynx!stevek.UUCP +=-jhaubric@mcs213a.cs.umr.edu (John Haubrich) (03/27/91)
Howdy! I called Insite today (26 Mar 91) and talked to one of their sales people. She said evaluation units of their floptical would start shipping on May 15 with OEM-only sales starting in August. Her "best guess" at a retail price was $600US for the drive and $20-$25 per floptical diskette. She added that the company hopes to bring the price down to around $300 within a year or so. When I asked about Commodore-Amiga support, she said "Commodore has announced that they're going to be one of our first OEM customers." I guess that means I have to wait until August to replace my Seacrate but that's OK since I have no cash anyway :) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Haubrich The Great Standard disclaimers apply -----------------------------------------------------------------------------