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Fred,
Let me be your first investor. Here is my criteria.
If I am buying a new computer:
1. I have to read my old floppies
2. I don't want to pay for more than one drive.
3. I have to be able to boot to either floppy or new type disk.
If I have an existing computer:
1. I can use my old drive to boot to but then I can't boot to the new drive.
2. If I replace my old floppy, then I have to read the old floppies and I have to be able to boot to the new drive.
I am not in love with the LS-120 just compatability and economy. If it can't do the above then the product becomes just another syquest drive.
Here are some recent articles and sites. O.R. Technology apparently owns the technology but is currently a private company.
infoworld.com
Zip-style disks Drive vendors competing for notebook slot
By Carolyn A. April
Publication Date: July 1, 1996 (Vol. 18, Issue 27)
Removable storage for notebook computers will get a lot more interesting early next year when Iomega Corp. and Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics Industry Ltd. roll out 15mm, low-profile versions of
their high-capacity drives.
Iomega plans a slimmer, lighter version of its 100MB capacity Zip drive that can be inserted into the modular drive bay of notebook computers, officials said.
Matsushita will introduce a drive slated for notebooks and based on existing LS-120 technology that holds as much as 120MB of data and is backward-compatible with 3.5-inch floppy diskettes,
officials said.
Roy, Utah-based Iomega will deliver a 15mm-thick internal laptop version of its Zip drive to beta testers in the fourth quarter. The drive is expected to ship to manufacturers in early 1997.
Iomega is touting the integrated Zip drive as a solution for corporate users, particularly those who handle financial applications and data and sales automation.
Many analysts and IS managers said they endorsed the move.
"I'd definitely be interested in having one in my notebook," said Stephen Wittner, network manager at Centex Group Inc., a Dallas-based contracting company.
"I like Zip drives because they are flexible, so I can do multiple boot-ups while using them. I'd put [Windows] NT on one of the Zip disks, [Windows] 95 on another, and use my hard drive for
applications," Wittner added.
Other observers said the backward-compatibility feature on Matsushita's LS-120 is one advantage the LS-120 has over the Zip drive.
"Not everyone is going to throw out their old floppies," said one IS manager at an insurance company.
Iomega's Zip drive, which has been available as an external unit since last year, accepts special Zip disks that have 25MB or 100MB of storage capacity.
The internal version will be similar in size to a removable 3.5-inch floppy drive and will weigh no more than the CD-ROM drives currently available for notebooks. The Zip drive could be swapped into
the floppy or CD modular drive bays that most top-tier portables feature.
Although OEM pricing hasn't been set, an Iomega official said the final retail price will be in the $200 range, the current retail price for an external unit.
So far, no major notebook vendor has disclosed plans to offer the Zip drive in products. However, at PC Expo in New York last month, Iomega demonstrated the drive working inside a Toshiba
America Information Systems Inc. notebook.
"We aren't currently integrating the Zip drive into any of our notebooks, but I can't say what will happen with future products," said a source within Toshiba.
Like Iomega, Matsushita is redesigning its drive for use in notebook computers. The original LS-120 design was codeveloped with Compaq Computer Corp., 3M, and O.R. Technology Inc. The
LS-120 is currently installed in several models of Compaq's Deskpro desktop either as standard or as a $210 option.
Compaq officials declined to say if an internal LS-120 is in the works for the company's portables.
infoworld.com
Floppy disks get closer to extinction
By Ron Condon
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 1:05 AM PT, Nov 16, 1995
LAS VEGAS -- As users store more and more graphics and start to download video from the Internet, the humble floppy disk's capacity of 1.44M bytes is beginning to look inadequate. The question
is: what technology is likely to come along and replace it?
Several possible candidates are presenting themselves, according to Stan Corker, director, Removable Storage Research, International Data Corp., who spoke at the Comdex exhibition here Tuesday.
However, the success of these possible replacements will depend on their cost falling below the price tag of $200 per drive, while offering at least 100M bytes capacity and the ability to use existing PC
slots.
Corker's tip for a possible winner was a recently launched product from Iomega Corp. "The Zip drive from Iomega is coming in fast, and has shipped 1 million units in the last nine months", said Corker.
The Zip drive comes either as a standalone device or as an OEM product. The drive retails for $200 and individual disks -- which look like floppy disks but are slightly fatter -- cost $15 each and store
100M bytes, equal to 70 floppies. The Zip standard has been already adopted by a handful of companies, including Epson, Maxell, Roland and Fuji.
Iomega also announced a new product, the Jaz drive, which plugs into the PC via a SCSI interface and provides 1G bytes storage on a package containing two double-sided 3.5-inch platters. That
costs $499 for the drives and the removable disk costs $99.
Another strong possible contender will be the floptical drive being jointly developed by Compaq Computer Corp and 3M Corp. "This has a lot of potential but it's not here yet and may lose its chance if
it is too late," said Corker.
The 3.5-inch magneto-optical drive is still too expensive, he said, and Matsushita's phase-change drives have come down to $500, still too high to unseat the floppy. If the Zip drive or floptical do not
establish themselves by the end of 1996, then users may have to wait until around 2002, when the rewritable CD using the newly agreed Digital Video Disk standard becomes available.
This may be the most likely scenario, according to Richard Watts, vice president and general manager of Hewlett-Packard Co. "I don't see anything taking the place of the floppy drive before the end of
the decade," he said.
Ron Condon is a correspondent for the IDG News Service, an InfoWorld
affiliate.
infoworld.com
120MB floppy will operate as systems' standard built-in a:drive
By Ephraim Schwartz
Publication Date: August 26, 1996 (Vol. 18, Issue 35)
In its quest to make the 120MB capacity floppy diskette an industry standard, O.R. Technology Inc. will announce next week that Microsoft Corp. will incorporate drivers for the LS-120 technology in
its Windows 95 OEM Service, Release 2. The 120MB drive is already supported in Windows NT 4.0.
With support for the technology built in to the operating system, the drive, which shares the same form factor as a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive, can be recognized as the boot drive in 120MB, 1.44MB,
and 720KB mode, according to an O.R. Technology representative.
At the same time, San Jose, Calif.-based Promise Technology Inc. will announce the September availability of a $49 ATAPI controller card, FloppyMax, with BIOS drive support for O.R.
Technology's version of the LS-120, called the a:drive.
According to sources close to O.R. Technology, an agreement is also forthcoming with Phoenix Technologies Ltd. to incorporate support for the LS-120 technology in the next upgrade of its BIOS.
The a:drive can currently be used as a removable storage device but requires OS support as well as support from the system BIOS to work as a bootable floppy, said an O.R. Technology
representative.
The hope that the a:drive will become the new standard floppy is inherent in its very name, but some analysts voiced skepticism.
"At almost $100 to an OEM, the price is too steep, and the technology [servo-laser] won't allow the price to come down," said Phil Devin, a chief analyst at Dataquest Inc., in San Jose, Calif.
But some corporate PC managers agreed and others did not.
"If its cheap enough to put in most machines then it will be a standard,' said a PC manager for a large U.S. corporation. "One hundred dollars isn't a lot of money until you multiply it by 100 machines."
Mark Lillie, corporate technology advisor for Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Connecticut, disagreed.
"We don't monitor to that level [of price]," Lillie said. "Relative to the cost of a whole system, it's just a couple of percentage points."
O.R. Technology, in Campbell, Calif., is at (408) 866-3000. |
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