🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug25.095728.20697@odin.diku.dk> dingbat@diku.dk (Niels Skov 
Olsen) writes:


>> Some time ago I heard somone mention somthing called flopticals (or 
>> something similar), which is a combination of a magnetic and optical
>> media. The capacity was mentioned to be 20mb (even more later) with 
>> access time as harddisks a few years ago, and normal 3.5" floppy 
>> package.

>> I haven't heard anything about it since, so if anyone could point
>> me to articles, tests, or even pruduct information I would be most
>> gratefull.

>> Thanks,

>> Niels

Niels,

  The only "Floptical" I know of is a product by Insight Peripherals (I think
maybe they are in Fremont, CA). It's not really a combination of magnetic and
optical media, but rather a combination of magnetic and optical technology.
They use a standard floppy magnetic media, but they use laser optics for both
tracking and positioning. This is where the data density and access times are
a win. I believe that they can write 20MB of data on a 3.5" floppy and that
they can read (but not write) a standard DOS floppy.

  I remember seeing something in the San Jose Mercury News business section a
few weeks ago to the effect that 3M was going to market this technology (I 
would assume with their media).

  Anyway, that's how I understood the technology. I apologize if any of this
turns out to be in error, it was quite a while ago that I was looking at it.

I hope that helps.

				Thanx,
				  AJ

ps. Wasn't SONY supposed to be out this summer with a 3.5" form factor CD that
    was write-able and could record up to 70min of music? Or is my mind failing
    again?


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