Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Frodo Baxter who wrote (4565)	9/29/1998 1:50:00 AM
From: Frodo Baxter	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9256

Folks, I want to return to my argument about the death of high-end. A bleeding-edge desktop drive has an IDE interface, areal density of 3.4/disk, 5400rpm, and costs 3 cents per meg. A mid-life high-end drive has SCSI, 1.8/disk, 7200rpm, and costs 6 cents or so. Is the premium worth it? My contention is no, it's an artificial margin that will collapse. I think this will benefit the desktop players (Maxtor, Quantum) and kill the high-enders (Seagate). Here's what Quantum should do. They've already killed Atlas. Now they should kill Viking, too. Instead, just develop Fireball @ 7200rpm. Swap out IDE for SCSI, rejigger the firmware to write some more error-checking codes (this may lower areal density by a few percentage points, big deal), brand this as a "enterprise-class Viking" drive, and sell it for HALF PRICE. Scorched earth. I love it.