Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!beta!hc!ames!pioneer!eugene
From: eugene@pioneer.arpa (Eugene N. Miya)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Disk drives -- speed of?
Message-ID: <7543@ames.arpa>
Date: 18 Apr 88 16:44:44 GMT
References: <2746@sundc.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@ames.arpa
Reply-To: eugene@pioneer.UUCP (Eugene N. Miya)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Lines: 23

I read Don's follow up to this as well.  I don't think you should get
the impression that it's all the controller's fault.  There are
controllers which stripe after all.

You have to look at the history of disk drives.  The first ones were
much slower than 3600 RPM. It is after all wall current and gears
("pulleys") which determine these speeds.  The three disk companies I'm
familiar with (otherwise 2 if Infomag hasn't gone out of business) all
did studies of magnetic foot prints, etc.  All proprietary.  3600 RPM
is only a temporary plateau (a stepping stone) to higher speeds like
32-bit words on processors.

I only worked on the things which crashed into them. ;-)

On a separate note: I saw my first piece of ICL hardware yesterday,
a cash register (I count the DAP as AMT hardware now).

From the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers:

--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@ames-aurora.ARPA
  "You trust the `reply' command with all those different mailers out there?"
  "Send mail, avoid follow-ups.  If enough, I'll summarize."
  {uunet,hplabs,hao,ihnp4,decwrl,allegra,tektronix}!ames!aurora!eugene