I should have chosen my words more carefully. JTS is free to design drives at whatever level they wish. And while I am certinly not privy to upcoming developments at JTS, there are other factors involved in my determination.
1) 9 Gigs in 1" high format (this is pretty much the standard for non-server 3.5" drives anyway so it's not really a special form factor nowadays) is not much of an achievement anymore. IBM is now achieving 9 Gigs with 3 3.5" platters and Maxtor comes close with 4.
So whatever product the page referred to is probably not new anymore. JTS would have had to been making this drive for a while now, and would now have to be announcing 18 Gig drives in 1" format to keep pace. In fact, had JTS not announced a 6.4 Gig drive, it would have appeared to me JTS was falling behind the low end.
2) While I was surprised that MIG heads could produce a 2 Gig per platter drive, it is not exactly leading the areal density race (I would still be very thankful if anybody with an understanding of HDD design could shed light on the advantages/disadvantages of JTS using MIG). JTS so far has been lagging everybody else in this category, and they have even been boasting about their leadership in use of old technology (maybe for good reason). While the 3" drives use MR heads according to the specs, JTS has suspended production of these (trouble with obtaining/using MR heads? hope not)
3) But I think the main reason for not believing JTS could remotely be the producer of the drive is the complete insanity it would have required on behalf of JTS to enter the high capacity/performance business. It would have required hiring more engineers and taking on a (very)large added expense to break into this. It would necessitate faster motors, cutting edge recording technologies, cutting edge seek times, higher reliability, and shortened product development time in order to interest buyers (none of which JTS has the resources, economies of scale or clout to achieve profitably). It is also the same business which has caused the major DD players the biggest headaches over past year and led to Micropolis going out of business. It would constitute a major uprooting of the business model of JTS, and would clearly call for a press release long before such products are actually available.
So, could JTS produce SCSI drives for the server market? Of course they could. Except it would be at a loss of $500 per drive and would make 1/4 an excellent price to go short. For JTS to survive short term, which I imagine we are both hoping for, it will require execution of their low cost model, and to survive longer term it will require 3" sales as well. In every other respect I am under the impression that JTS is at a competitive disadvantage to just about every other DD maker.
--Scott |
