Trakker,
I think the article you have presented is a very informative one. Thanks. Please do not believe that every technical writer knows (and/or writes) everything about a given technology in a given article. While it is true that MO is a rewritable technology (go to a computer store and check it out), the point in the article that it is permanent storage is exactly why it is such a great technique. You can do anything with it without fear of loss of data.
As a developer of MO media for the past 14 years, I can assure you that we routinely write.read.erase data (in the same sector) at least 10 million times to verify a particular formulation's stability. We call this cycle testing. No one in the phase change world can claim that, not even Matsushita, the PC leader. As a matter of fact in PC technology, the drive firmware monitors how many times a sector is rewritten. After about 1000 times that sector's data is rewritten to a new one and the old one is retired. We do not need to do this in MO since there is no degredation of signal to noise.
If you really don't believe that its a rewritable medium, check out the computer rags. Let me quote a Tiger ad, "MicroNet Optical advantage. 230 MB, 3.5" rewritable optical storage sets a new level of high data capacity in a small, reliable form factor. Featuring an avg. access time of 30 mses, and transfer rates up to 1.0MB/sec, the Adv 230 rewritable optical drive is a practical near-line storage device with virtually unlimited capacity".
I don't get why you don't see where removing a full disk and replacing with a blank one is an indication of non-erasability. When a Zip or Jaz disk is full of good stuff, you don't erase it and use it again, you pull it out and put in a new one in the same manner as MO, don't you? If the disk is full of useless stuff, then you can re-use. In this respect they are the same.
Again, low cost of entry is IOMG's strong suit. They've done an amazing job at this, haven't they.
As for the MO, at $600 drive cost for a 230 MB unit, it hasn't been successful in the US due to Syquest's past dominance. Now Iomega has moved in and the $600 does not stack up against Zip at $150. But enter the 640 MB MO at the same $600 and due to the much lower cost per MB the story begins to change. It is now closer to a Jaz in specs. though and faces a challenge there. Personally, I will rather carry 3.5 inch MO 'diskettes' around with me (in my shirtpocket) than the large Jaz disks. JMHO.
Yoroshiku is japanese for Best Regards, etc.
Anyway, another bummer day on the street for Iomega.
Chris |
