#Thor CD
21 messages in this thread
Rick,
One of the local papers printed a paragraph article about something
called Thor CD that they said Tandy was working on. It is supposed to
be a way of writing AND erasing an optical CD. Have you heard anything
about it? It would seem to be an ideal way to turn the Amiag into a
digital recorder (2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 track) if it can hold data in the
quantities of other optical mediums. Of course we would still need the
sampling harware first.
Barry 8)
Not offhand, though… but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Probably
someone else can shed some light? <Hint hint>
Rick
The copy I saw said that the computer version would be available
'within 3 years'. Also noted that the 'recording publishing' industry was
all upset (what else is new) about such a product.
The article I read said 1 year to 1 1/2. Of course this gives harware
developers a chance to get ready and create a monster sampler for the
Amiga.
I can see why they're upset-if you were selling digital tape recorders
for $250,000 (thats two-hundred fifty _thousand_ dollars) you probably
wouldn't like it if it became possible to do the same thing for 4K.
[I'm refering to the Sony and Mistubishi multi-tracks <24 and 32>].
Barry
A pox on the 'recording/publishing' industry!!!! I'm sure that the
monasteries were extremely upset by the discovery of moveable type. It's a
good thing lawyers were more scarce in the old days, otherwise the dark ages
would have lasted a few more centuries <grin>
Bring on new TECHNOLOGY!!!!
-RSL-
I read about Tandy Corp.'s Thor CD technology in a local newspaper (Daily
News, New York). If the report is on the level it promises to revolutionize
memory storage technology (imagine having a $500 drive which stores
interchangeable 500 megabyte disks at $15!!!!!!
The article compared the Thor CD technology with VHS technology!
I scaned CIS' CDROM forum, and they hadn't mentioned it yet! I left a
message asking if anyone out there heard about it.
The technology is still 12-16 months away from a consumer product, but I hope
it works!!!!!!
-RSL-
I hope it works too! Tandy has had the guts to announce a PS 2 clone (big
deal, I know) but at lease they're seemingly out to play with the big boys.
Thor CD could make them another Sony.
Lets hope they don't price it out of the market. Imagine selling one to
everyone that has a computer for a few hudred dollars instead of selling
a few thousand for a few thousand.
Bary
that should read "Barry" and lease should read "least" 8)
The prices quoted by Tandy are almost as exciting as the technology. The say
that the player/recorder should be priced at $500 and the replaceable disks
will retail in the $10-$15 range!!!
This single advance will kill present hard disks if it appears in the market
place as predicted!!!!!
-RSL-
I don't think it will 'kill' present hard disks. CD data rates are
VERY slow by comparison to current HDs, the access times are also slow. If
you want a sample of how slow the access times are, try telling your audio CD
player to go from the first song to the last on a disk. Access times are in
the .5 second range, HDs are in the .020 second range. Data rates are around
600K bytes per second and up for HDs and 176.4K bytes per second for CD. At
least thats the info I have on them at this point.
Read Tandy's suggestion that technological innovations being worked on
today will bring CD seek times up to and beyond that of hard disks!
Even if CD technology is slower, hard disks will be relegated to a high
speed cache for your CD storage! (Until memory prices dive down and high
speed megabyte CD cache systems become cost effective!
True, its all vaporware…
But its EXCITING VAPORWARE!!!!
-RSL-
There is no doubt in my mind that if people want it badly enough, CD access
times begin to approach those of HD's. They need to reduce the mass of the
lens system considerably, but I was reading only a few weeks ago about
research into using holographic lenses.
Tandy's product announcement mentioned work on holographic lenses as
the future advances that will bring up CD's seek times upto and beyond those
of present hard disks. It looks like optical technology is going to push
magnetic technology into better and better specs (not to mention
price/performance ratios)!!
I can't wait to see what the industry come up with when people start
complaining that 'the old 500 megabyte disk capacity just isn't enough'!
Remember when we were all thrilled to have an 8 bit CPU with 2K of
memory???
-RSL-
I wouldn't go a far to say the new technology will kill off HDs. Access times
on laser disks are SLOW. There is no such thing as track to track since they
only have 1 spiral track. A getting from point a to point b is time
consuming.
Roy,
Not quite. They're a bit slower from what I read. They _will_ make a nice
second large-capacity storage device, though. A place to keep all those
neat, big data files, like sampled sounds or graphics. It opens up a lot of
possibilities.
Doug
I remember reading about a fellow in the Bya Area named Thad Floryan, who
had, at the time the AMiga was about 1 year old, over 1400 disks full of
Amiga related stuff. It comprised literally everything that he could get his
hands on; text files, programs, source code, messages on BBS's, etc. Imagine
putting all that on 3 500 meg CDs… of course finding anything would be a
bear.
-larry
Larry,
Welp, using his HD as in index would take care of that. 8)
I remember reading about the CD Encyclopedia, and how 20 percent of it was
set aside for cross-referenced indexing. The only drawback to having that
much storage space is locating things. The first person that comes up with
software for indexing in a rational manner is going to make _some_ money!
Doug
I believe that the overhead for the indexing is closer to 50%.
Jon,
You may very well be right. I do remember that a great deal of overhead
was required just to make accessing what you were looking for a same-day
task. That's the only problem with having gobs of storage space. Unless it
is divied up in a logical manner, searching for a single item becomes a
nightmare.
As I remember, the method used in that particular case was search the
index, and use that to find the actual information. Even while using the
index, however, the time to look up something general was in the minutes
range. Unless you knew what you were looking for specifically, which was
almost painless, the search took a long time.
Still, the thought of availability of all that storage for long-term files
and permanent backups makes me drool.
Doug
Barry,
The article I read said that Tandy was licensing the technology from
IBM to create their PS/2 clone…so that's no big deal.
Don
There's a brief recap of the article in… duh… either the MusicForum or
the MIDI forum. I think it's the former; check section zero, computer music.
It's only a one paragraph blurb and it doesn't say anything that hasn't
already been mentioned here, but thought I'd mention it in case anyone is
interested.
Rick
I just read the official announcement from Tandy in DL14 on TandyPro
Forum. There announcement promises a great deal, but I still don't have the
slightest idea of the specs. Rumors I have read on CDROM Forum have quoted
dissapointing specs of 100 MB per disk and only 18 writes. I don't know if
this is the real specs (I hope not). In Tandy's announcements they say that
their CD technologies seek times are compatible with present CD technology
and advances being worked on promise to advance the CD seek times faster than
magnetic hard disk speeds!
Why do I have this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that this
announcement was written by 'marketing' instead of the 'technical'
department!
Let's all just hope for the best!
-RSL-
P.S. I never thought I would use the words Radio Shack (Tandy) and innovation
in the same sentence!