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Technology Stocks : Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Oliver who wrote (3309)	5/13/1998 2:15:00 AM
From: Gottfried	Respond to of 9256

Mark, I have no answers and think there's plenty of time to obtain them. Consider... OAW technology, which will be incorporated into Seagate and other OEM hard disk and tape storage products, improves traditional Winchester magneto-resistive drives, which can theoretically become unstable at densities of approximately 20 to 40 gigabits per square inch. The two companies say they expect their technology to exceed those areal densities sometime early in the next decade And.... Head designs being developed combine magnetic technology with miniature mirrors and optical lenses that direct light pulses onto the media surface. Controlled by fiber-optic technology, the mirrors and lenses will be used in drive servo systems. Quinta says this servo system may allow track densities to exceed 100,000 tracks per inch. Sounds complicated. Since manufacturers still have intermittent yield problems even with MR heads (which have been in shipped products since 1991), I won't hold my breath to see the first product with OAW heads. Also... The use of plastics in the disk substrate will replace aluminum substrates used in traditional Winchester drives. Yet another new technology. All quotes from idg.net I notice that the Seagate/Quinta story does not mention ReadRite's involvement. GM

To: Mark Oliver who wrote (3309)	5/19/1998 1:47:00 PM
From: Pierre-X	Respond to of 9256

Re: A bad business You said: I would say from all outward appearances, RDRT is probably at a low price, but their market is so unstable and competitive I would just not bother and instead go into better areas for investing. Yes indeed. Well, I wouldn't say "unstable" but it's definitely competitive, and RDRT has no sustainable competitive advantage. In a commodity business, no one can. The industry will live and die more or less together. (Sounds like marriage: "in good times and in bad...") Now, if one believed the storage industry is collectively about to experience a little excess demand, RDRT would be a good -element- of one's -basket- of industry stocks. But without any significant new demand drivers in sight, I don't see any such demand materializing ... God bless, PX