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From: asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Optical Disk price change
Message-ID: <5774@mace.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 15 Oct 90 00:00:41 GMT
References: <72100012@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu> <9198@milton.u.washington.edu>
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 40

>In other words, $150/disc is the fair, unsubsidized price for optical
>media.

>It doesn't take a crystal ball to see that this technology is on the
>way out.

Nothing could be father from the truth.  Take a look at MacUser's
November's 1990 issue.  They review 20 OD drives.  They also received
2 more but too late to review.  On the horizon are 3.5 inch OD drives,
and new 'phase change technology' that can write 33% faster than the
current magneto-optical technology.  New multi-function drives, faster
spinning drives, etc. are all in the works.  All the drives comply to
an ISO standard, that Sony backs up, so there is a bit of weight
behind it.  All of the drives support 512byte sectors, and some even
support faster 1024byte sectors.  The Storage Dimensions Macinstor has
a proprietary format that puts 1gig on a disk.  Using this format it
can read 4.7megabits per second.  Faster than a test 40meg drive
Macuser had.  It could write 1.7 megabits per second.  Still not bad.
A Sony based drive could do 2.0megabits per second.  There is also a
committee that is working on a multiplatform standard, that might see
some progress by mid-91.

Optical drives offer HUGE savings in terms of per meg.  At low end
storage, of less that 1 gig, they will still be beat by basic
harddrives, and removable magnetic media hard drives can still beat
them until about 2.25 meg.  But after that, they can't be beat as for
price.  Especially at a typical $.33 per meg for a 600meg disk.

Yeah, they are slow, but they continue to get faster, cheaper, and
larger.  They won't be able to compete against hard drives in speed,
ever most likely.  But they sure can as for price and volume of
storage.  And with the amounts of storage people need today, optical
drives are the ONLY solution for a lot of needs.

Optical drives are definitely here for a stay.  It's too bad that NeXT
jumped on it maybe the bandwagon bit too soon.

BTW, does anybody know if NeXT OD's conform to the ISO standard?

-k