Ampex Corp: Digital Storage Message Board

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Technology Stocks : Ampex Corp: Digital Storage

AMPX 9.310

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10:11 AM EST

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To: Douglas Perkins who wrote (2031)	3/3/1997 1:46:00 PM
From: Gus	of 3256

Magneto-optical drives Magneto-optical (MO) drives combine the technology and advantages of both the conventional magnetic drives and the laser-beam-based CD-ROM and WORM (write once read many) drives. Optical drives use a laser to heat particles before hanging their magnetic polarity. Writing is usually done in a two- or three-stage process using a laser to heat particles and a magnet to reverse the polarity. Reading is done by the drive's shining a low-powered laser through the media and determining the direction of the reflection. Standards for MO drives have emerged in the last few years. At the top of the line is the 5.25-inch drive that holds 1 GB, has the approximate performance of a Syquest drive, and is relatively expensive. The 5.25-inch format is also available in a ss-expensive 650-MB format. The 3.5-inch MO drive, which holds 128 MB, costs significantly less than the 5.25-inch formats and has become quite popular. This drive is about 90% slower than a Syquest. Advantages: MO drives have high data integrity. Optical cartridges are several hundred times more resistant to magnetic field corruption than conventional magnetic disks, and they have a rated data life of 10 to 30 years compared to one year for floppy disks. They are economical for large amounts of data. MO drives can be used as a startup drive. Disadvantages: MO drive units are relatively expensive. They are much slower than standard hard drives. Applications: MO drives are ideal for archiving scans, photographs, forms, and other data. They are also useful for backups, secondary storage, and transporting files. lacie.com Terastor's NEAR FIELD RECORDING TECHNOLOGY sounds like an advanced version of the magneto-optical drives that you can buy right now. The Terastor web site doesn't have anything that suggests that they have achieved speed-parity and cost-parity with today's disk drives. Something to keep an eye on.

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