This article includes information on tape drives from:
- Conversion Dynamics, Inc
- Macsetra Technologies International, Inc. (Canada)
- Peripheral Land, Inc.
- Racet Computers, Ltd.
- Ricoh Corp. (Peripheral Products Division)
- Software Architects, Inc.
- Storage Dimensions
- Summus Computer Systems
- Sumo Systems
All the listings below were valid as of December, 1989. For further
manufacturer information, search the Tech Info Library under the
manufacturer's name.
Conversion Dynamics, Inc.
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Conversion Dynamics's Optirase is an external SCSI, 5.25-inch, erasable
optical-disk subsystem. It has a total capacity of 600MB for storage and
provides a convenient way to back up or offload data from any mountable
volume and distributes the information from one system to another.
Macsetra Technologies International, Inc. (Canada)
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Macsetra's Genesis 6000 is a rewritable 600MB optical drive using
fully-removable 5.25-inch cartridges. It is a fully bootable device and
makes use of Macintosh icons, system utilities, backup routines, and
ejectability. Its own proprietary software includes automatic bad-block
management and sophisticated memory caching to increase all-around speed
and performance.
Peripheral Land, Inc.
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Peripheral Land's Infinity Optical is a fully rewritable, magneto-optical
drive that has a formatted capacity of 573MB. It features sustained data
transfer rates of 7.4 megabits per second and an average access time of
75ms. It has the option of 512K or 1024K sectors. The double-sided,
5.25-inch cartridges can be formatted to be compatible with Macintosh OS,
MS-DOS 3.0, or A/UX. It comes bundled with backup software, laser printer
spooler, RAM-based disk drive accelerator, disk optimizer, defragmentation
software, and security software.
Racet Computers, Ltd.
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Racet's Stand-Alone Series Cosmos 600 is a magneto-optical erasable
drive and has a formatted capacity of just under 300MB per side on
two-sided media. It provides regular archive backups and has
full-featured, system-level software. Access times are 70ms average,
with a burst transfer rate from 128K on-board cache of 1.2MB per second.
Ricoh Corp. (Peripheral Products Division)
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Ricoh's RO-5030E is a rewritable, optical drive that provides speedy data
access in only 71ms. It offers 594MB of fully rewritable storage on a
removable, two-sided, magneto-optical disk. The transfer rate at the unit's
SCSI interface is up to 1.4MB per second. Its mean time between failures
is rated at more than 20,000 hours of operation.
Software Architects, Inc.
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Software Architects, Inc. have an optical disk drive (both Sony and Ricoh)
product called Formatter II for A/UX. It is a read/write magneto-optical
disk drive with a capacity of about 610MB (about 300MB on each side). This
product comes with the driver, utility, and scripts for A/UX. The utility
lets you initialize and partition very much as the Macintosh HD Setup
program does. The shell scripts allow manipulating the operation of optical
disk in A/UX (for example, ejecting the cartridge).
Storage Dimensions
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Storage Dimensions's LaserStor Erasable is an erasble optical disk drive,
featuring a SCSI interface and one 1GB (1,000MB) erasable media cartridge.
ANSI standard cartridges are also available in capacities of 650MB.
MacinStor Installer software, featuring device driver, partitioning,
password-protected partitioning, drive diagnostics, and automatic
reallocation of bad blocks, is included. It provides an average seek time
of 35ms and data transfer rates of 10Mbps.
Summus Computer Systems
-----------------------
LightDisk-512 is a rewritable, magneto-optical disk drive with a capacity
of 600MB per optical disk. It provides the convenience of removable media
with performance approaching that of fixed drives (an average seek time of
90ms with a data transfer rate of 680Kbps).
Sumo Systems
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RSSM600 is a rewritable optical disk subsystem that includes a 600MB
optical disk in an enclosure with power supply, SCSI cable, and
INIT-installation software package. It has a fast access time of 50ms and
can be used as the boot device. The software has advanced features, like
automatic on-line formatting, automatic defect management, automatic
cartridge change control, and intelligent SCSI interface providing a high
data-transfer rate.