Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!gatech!hubcap!ncrcae!ncr-sd!sagpd1!monty
From: monty@sagpd1
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: 88MB SyQuest (Was Re: 1.52MB drive)
Message-ID: <1991May1.163144.12769@sagpd1>
Date: 1 May 91 16:31:44 GMT
References: <177031@netw23.uucp> <6msga2-@rpi.edu> <1991Apr26.130902.24985@sbcs.sunysb.edu> <kgwg44+@rpi.edu> <345@documail.UUCP>
Reply-To: monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine)
Organization: Scientific Atlanta, Government Products Div, San Diego, CA
Lines: 36

In article <345@documail.UUCP> rich@documail.UUCP (Rich McCallister) writes:
>In article <kgwg44+@rpi.edu> metahawk@itsgw.rpi.edu (Wayne G Rigby) writes:
>>In article <1991Apr26.130902.24985@sbcs.sunysb.edu> dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) writes:
>>>  Just get a floptical drive. It is about $600, with 20 megs per disk, and
>>>t uses standard 3.5 floppies also. Great for a second drive...
>>
>>Huh, where did you find this little gadget.  The cheapest 3.5 flopicals
>>I've seen are in the $3000-4000 range and hold about 125 Megs.  I've
>>never heard of any flopical drive that can accept normal disks.
>
>    At the NCGA show in Chicago last week, Commodore was sharing a booth with
>a distributor that was showing a 20 Meg floptical 3.5" floptical drive. They
>said the price was about $600 (I forget the exact amount), and that the media
>cost about $20 each. I *think* they said it would also read standard 880K
>floppies, but am not positive. It had an imbedded SCSI controller.

    Was that other party selling/displaying the floptical drive by Insite
    Peripherals ?? They have been trying to get out a 20 Meg 3 1/2" drive
    for about two-three years now. They had one model available last year
    but it did not read 880k disks. They were redesigning the unit to fit
    in the 1" high form factor and to handle reading/writing of 880k disks.
    The unit uses "special 3 1/2 disks" in that they have optical tracking
    information encoded on the magnetic media, hence the "floptical" 
    designtion. You can not get 20meg storage on a "standard" 3 1/2" floppy
    with out this optical track system. They were also selling the encoder
    to place this optical information on disks (to OEM's only).

    I have been following this device for a while, but had about given up
    ever seeing them reach production. I even passed on literature to the 
    CBM rep at Comdex two years ago (hoping they would put one in the A500).

    The target price was supposed to be under $300 but I guess they haven't
    hit that target if the above pricing is correct.


    Monty Saine