Path: utzoo!dciem!array!colin From: colin@array.UUCP (Colin Plumb) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Data Storage density questions Message-ID: <355@array.UUCP> Date: 31 Jul 90 20:21:27 GMT References: <2635@mindlink.UUCP> <10048@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <2684@network.ucsd.edu> Organization: Array Systems Computing, Inc., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA Lines: 17 In article <2684@network.ucsd.edu> mbk@inls1.ucsd.edu (Matt Kennel) writes: > You mean disk drives are not evacuated? > Wow, you learn something new every day. > > Come to think of it, why not? I should think that it would be nice to > be able to position the head without worrying about such ugly things as the > viscocity of air and its pressure & temperature and the roughness of the > platter. Fluid mechanics is exceedingly tough so why bother when you > don't have to? Because I'm not very keen on building a servomechanism that will track a wiggling, vibration-prone drive platter to within a few millionths of an inch. It's much easier to use an atmosphere and let aerodynamics hold the head at the right altitude, even if the computations aren't entirely trivial. -- -Colin