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From: info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA
Newsgroups: fa.info-vax
Subject: Optical storage
Message-ID: <6468@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 23-Apr-85 23:12:33 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.6468
Posted: Tue Apr 23 23:12:33 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 24-Apr-85 07:30:08 EST
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Organization: University of California at Berkeley
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From: lucas@cmu-psy-a (pete lucas)

The trades have been claiming for some time that write-once-read-mostly
optical disks were just around the corner.  The thought of a removable
medium with gigabyte capacity at $100-or-so a shot is most appealing.
For one thing, it would permit unattended nightly incremental backups which
one could afford to keep forever.
What is the status of this technology?  Can I buy such a device with
controller for a VAX?  If so, from whom and how much?  How about VMS
software support?  What would you even want such a thing to look like to make
it usable with utilities like BACKUP?  A tape drive with very long reels?
Perhaps each platter could be segmented into separately mountable virtual
reels?  There doesn't seem to be any obvious way it could emulate a
block-replaceable device.
				-pal