IBM's Tiny Storage May Threaten Flash Memory
June 18, 1999
Filed at 7:46 p.m. EDT
By Mark Hachman for Electronic Buyers' News, CMPnet
Analysts and OEMs are puzzling over what
IBM's unique, postage-stamp-size disk drive will
mean to established storage technologies in
portable applications, now that the company is
shipping 170- and 340-megabyte models.
IBM disclosed the Microdrive's existence several
monthsago, but withheld critical
power-consumption and pricing information until
now. And while the technology is impressive
enough, analysts say the company's privately expressed commitment to
doubling the Microdrive's capacity annually for the next three years will
be the real story, potentially offering more than 1 gigabyte of storage in
2001.
Although the $499 340-megabyte Microdrive seems roughly comparable
to SanDisk's CompactFlash card, analysts say the IBM device will likely
carve out a niche between the flash-based CF Card and the PC
Card-the playing-card-size form factor commonly found in notebook
PCs.
On the surface, the Microdrive would seem to compete directly with
flash memory, especially since it conforms to the CF standard's physical
dimensions. With an adapter, it can also fit into a PC Card slot.
"Microdrive works where flash capacity cannot be had or is too
expensive," said Martin Reynolds, an analyst at Dataquest, in San Jose,
Calif. "Generally, flash is better -- if you can get enough of it and you can
afford it. But there is no such thing anywhere as 340 MBs in a
[CompactFlash Type II] slot except with the Microdrive."
Also purchasing the Microdrive are several companies that use flash as
data storage, according to IBM, including Compaq, Casio, Diamond
Multimedia (which makes the Rio MP3 player), Eastman Kodak,
Minolta, Nikon, and Samsung.
"In some cases, designers and end users who are using high-capacity
flash memory will find it to their advantage to substitute Microdrives for
flash cards," said John D. Osterhout, director of worldwide marketing for
Microdrive products at IBM's Storage Systems Division, San Jose. "To
a large degree, though, we think it will be new products and new
applications that will drive Microdrive growth."
Analysts say two likely drivers of that growth will be the continued
expansion of the professional digital-camera market, as it tries to
shoulder aside decades of film-based cameras, and high-capacity data
backup for notebook computers.
Today, for example, photojournalists desperate to make deadlines
require a storage format that can store megapixel images and transfer
them quickly and easily, said analyst J. Gerry Purdy of Mobile Insights, in
Mountain View, Calif.
IBM's redesigned motor and spindle allow the Microdrive to spin up to
writing speed in less than a second, so pictures can be taken almost
instantaneously. According to both IBM and analysts, the drive's power
consumption is low enough for the device to run on a pair of AA
batteries.
"Notice, too, that the [Microdrive's 5.04 gigabits per square inch] is
pretty small compared to notebook offerings," Purdy said. IBM chose
instead to maximize the drive's non-operating shock tolerance. "By doing
that, they can prove it out and add higher capacities later," he said.
The Microdrive will likely take on the same role as high-capacity floppy
drives in notebooks, according to Purdy, replacing Iomega's Zip and
Imation's SuperDisk (LS-120) for backup storage. And even IBM was
forced to reassess its new creation, he said. "When they were selling this
internally as consumer film ... they found that it had more value in
traditional notebook markets," Purdy said. "That wasn't part of the
original plan."
A spokesman for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based SanDisk said a 192-MB
version of the CompactFlash card will ship this fall.
(c) 1999 CMP Media Inc.
|
