Impatience is the word of the day and also seems to be the general mood around this thread since the Maxtor announcement. It appears as though many AXC investors are disappointed in AXC's management for not releasing news in regards to the keepered media program since that time. Perhaps rightfully so, but what would you like them to say at this point? Here's my take on the progress and current state of their keepered media program, namely Maxtor's current status with their keepered drive program:
First of all, by changing the media to a new design via the keepered process, you can expect that there will have to be some amount of testing involved by whoever is investing the resources into a keepered drive program. No drive manufacturer would dive into production of a new design without some serious consideration into finding the best and optimal combination of components and the total costs associated with doing so. The first thing to be tested would be the application of the keepered layer, and its affect on the performance of the media. There is undoubtedly more than one approach to fabrication of the keepered layer, but which is best? Surely standard drive media has been through a barrage of testing, and would have ample data associated with those tests - but what about a new type of media? There is probably little, if any at all. The next step would involve optimization of the keeper response by changing the magnetic properties used in the keepered layer, currently Sendust. Concurrently, they are probably working on the read channel electronics, but that won't be finalized until the media is.
Perhaps the other drive manufacturers are awaiting the critical point where the keepered media has been tested and optimized. After all, no one could design a drive without knowing the magnetic characteristcs (i.e. noise, etc.) of the finalized media. So why sign an agreement until this step is accomplished? Maybe they want a warm and fuzzy feeling before committing themselves technically as well as financially. Maxtor was most likely given the favorable terms because they knew they would have to invest their own resources to fully reap the benefits of the keepered media design. Just like magneto-resistive heads, there is probably some learning curve that must be overcome before mass production can begin. |
