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From: ac4@pucc-h (Putnam)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: New IOMEGA disk unit
Message-ID: <492@pucc-h>
Date: Thu, 26-Jan-84 10:21:52 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.492
Posted: Thu Jan 26 10:21:52 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jan-84 05:37:48 EST
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 38

---
I walked into my local ComputerLand the other day and saw a new cartridge
disk drive hooked to an IBM-PC.  It is made by IOMEGA Corporation,
4646 South 1500 West, Ogden, Utah 84403.  They call it the Bernoulli Box.
The beast has two cartridge drives, and each cartridge holds 10 megabytes!
The two cartridges mount side-by-side in an enclosure that is the same
size and shape as the IBM-PC system unit.

When I walked in, the salesman pulled one cartridge from the drive and
dropped it on the floor, then put it back and proceeded to use it!  These
are not "hard" disks ... they have what looks like a hard plastic disk of
some type.  The cartridges are about 5-6" wide by 8-9" deep by 1/2" thick.
Not only do you get 20 Mbytes online with removable media, but the average
access time is 30 milliseconds ... almost 3 times faster than the 10 Mbyte
winnies they put in the XT.  It shows, too... They can do a complete 
cartridge to cartridge copy in 3 minutes!

The retail price for the controller to fit into the PC, the two drives
in their enclosure with power, two disk cartridges, and DOS 2.00 device
driver is about $3695.  Additional cartridges are something like $80
each.  Not exactly cheap, but it you compare it to the PC expansion
cabinet, it begins to look real good.  By the way, it has a pretty
hefty fan on it, so it makes a good deal more background noise than an XT.

Anyway, this thing sounds almost too good to be true... media that is rugged,
large capacity, fast, easy backup, etc.  What really has me puzzled is that 
(1) I haven't seen any advertising in the usual trade rags about this thing, 
and (2) I don't see anybody talking about "semi-floppy" (?) or whatever disk 
technology when they write overview articles on the state of the art.  I
understand from my local salesman that it was announced at COMDEX, so it is
apparently relatively "new," but in the usual manner of a born-again TV
salesman, he doesn't know anything about the technology, etc.

Anybody know anything more about this unit?  Its technology?  
Anyone have one yet?

	Tom Putnam
	...!pur-ee!pucc-h:ac4