Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!hellgate.utah.edu!cs.utah.edu!t-jacobs
From: t-jacobs@cs.utah.edu (Tony Jacobs)
Subject: Re: Floptical Company?(s)
Date: 5 Jan 90 22:54:21 MST
Message-ID: <1990Jan5.225421.25907@hellgate.utah.edu>
Organization: University of Utah ME Dept
References: <1990Jan5.130907.22045@hellgate.utah.edu>

I guess I found the answer to my own question. My neighbor gives me his old
copies of EE Times and in the December 11 1989 issue on page 89 there is an
article entitled "Shift to high-end floppies is slow". It's mainly talking
about the 1.4 & 2.8 meg floppies but does mention a little about the 20 meggers

Oh, the answer is Insite Peripherals Inc of San Jose and they also mention
another company Brier Technology Inc also of San Jose.

The Insite drive has an extra core in the magnetic head that lets it read &
write in the 1 & 2 meg formats. The Brier unit only reads the smaller formats.

The article states that the Floptical drive "employs an optical servo that's
embossed onto diskettes when they are made, then read using technology 
borrowed from CD readers. Kodak is among those committed to producing the 
media. The servo makes head positioning precise enough to boost track density
to 1,250 tracks/inch."

The article also mentions that Toshiba is working on 16 & 32 Mbyte drives.

I think I'll try and find out what these companies plans are. I'll pass on
any useful information that I find.
Tony Jacobs * Center for Engineering Design * U of U * t-jacobs@cs.utah.edu
