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From: 4526P@NAVPGS.BITNET (LT Scott A. Norton, USN)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: WORM Drives
Message-ID: <0244526P@NAVPGS>
Date: Wed, 6-May-87 22:05:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: NAVPGS.0244526P
Posted: Wed May  6 22:05:00 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 9-May-87 21:10:23 EDT
Organization: Naval Postgraduate School
Lines: 50

Although the WORM drives for the IBM PS/2 have gotten the most
attention lately, there are some other drives of similar capability
from other manufacturers.
     
An article in the May 4 issue of Electronic Engineering Times
announces that Information Storage Inc.  has cut the price of its
240 Mbtye WORM disk drive.  $2,595 gets you a 5.5 inch
full-height drive that fits in an IBM-PC or clone.  An external
version of the drive is $200 more, and SCSI interface is another
$100.  The disks themselves are $125 for 240-Mbyte, double sided
platters.
     
The IBM-PC version uses a disk operating system that makes the
drive look like a regular disk drive to MS-DOS.  Or, you can pay
$500 and get Xenix.
     
For the Amiga owner that is contemplating the IBM WORM unit, the
ISI drive seems to me to be the better choice.  It is SCSI
compatible, so you can use existing SCSI units.  Of course, there
is still the matter of a device driver that makes best use of the
disk, but that requirement is no suprise.  It does look like
A-2000 owners will be able to use the bridge card and existing
software to access the WORM drive like any other MS-DOS, IBM-PC
device.
     
For the future, ISI will be releasing a 1-Gbyte unit by the end of
the year.  They plan on a cost less than twice that of the current
240-Meg drive.
     
Five bonus points to anyone who can come up with a better name
for this type disk than WORM.  When I think about SCSI WORM
drives, I imagine disgusting images of cowboys rounding up scuzzy
worms.  Yuch!
     
LT Scott A. Norton, USN
Naval Postgraduate School
Monterey, CA 93943-5018
4526P@NavPGS.BITNET
---
  "George took the worm and threw it across the pool to
the other side, among the brush.  'What do you want of a
scuzzy worm anyways?'
   'I could write to it with my thumb while we walked along,'
said Lenny."
                            -John Steinbeck, "Of Worms and Men"