Read/Write Optical
3 messages in this thread
… Just wondering how many users happened to
notice the Briwall Advertisement in the November
issue of Amiga World??
Since I just happen to be in the market for a
hard drive, I couldn't help but notice the ad for
a 650 MB Read/Write Optical hard drive with an
external case and power supply & fan. Quotes a
95 ms access time with a Sony Mechanism, and is
priced at $4599.00…
The 650 MB Cartridge is listed at $329.00.
I don't know if it is actually available now,
( I didn't actually call the company to find out)
but I must say it's the first time I've noticed
the advertisement in any magazine…. I hope these
magazines notice these ads and attempt to gather
enough information to write about the drive. – I'm
thinking it would make for some interesting reading!
Anyway, it looks like these drives have finally
arrived!(?)
I've been using one of those things (built by REO) on a Mac II at work. They do
work, but there are a couple caveats, to wit: You only get one side of the
media at a time, so formatted capacity <on line> is about 300 MB. Agreed, that
ain't hay, but it also ain't 650 MB. The access time of .095 sec. seems about
right, but the write time is also slow – I don't know what the Ami could get,
but on the Mac, it's much, much slower than a "real" hard disk. The REO on the
Mac II costs around $6K, so 4995 is believable, but the Sony media are only
about $150. Oh, yes, the media are hard sectored, so you have to get the
correct disk. To my knowledge, they come in 1024 and 512 sectoring, so the 512
should be ok for the Ami. Are you going to buy one? Regards, Larry Schilling
Supplements to Larry's message:
A representative sampling of Magneto-Optical drives:
MANUFACTURER MODEL MB/SIDE ACCESS, mSEC PRICE
HITACHI OD112-1 322 75 5000
MAXTOR TAHITI 322/500 35 9900
RICOH RO-5030E 297 71 3800
SONY SMO-D501 325 95 4650
SONY SMO-S501 325 95 5250
These are all SCSI drives. All the capacities are for the ANSI/ ISO MO
standard. The Maxtor drive also does Z-CAV format, which provides the
higher storage number. I *think* all these numbers are for 1K sectors, so
on the Amiga you might get slightly less. Hope this gives you a rough idea
of what's available and the price/performance range.