Magnetic appeal
Article Abstract:
Removable cartridge drives such as the 100MB Iomega Zip drive, SyQuest Sparq and SyJet and Iomega Jaz help fill graphics professionals' enormous appetite for mass storage. The Zip has become a de facto standard, and while optical technologies such as CD/R, DVD, phase-change and magneto-optical (MO) offer superior reliability, magnetic drives are more popular because they offer better price/performance ratios. An optical drive that approaches the speed of cartridge drives and stores several gigabytes can cost $2,000 or more. Per-megabyte media costs are lower for optical than magnetic technologies. The very popularity of magnetic cartridge drives is self-sustaining because users want to exchange data. Performance specifications include maximum sustained data-transfer rate, average access time and rotation speed. Interfaces in use include Ultra SCSI the common EIDE, parallel-port connectors and USB. A detailed description of each common drive technology is presented along with a table of products.
Publication Name: Publish
Subject: Publishing industry
ISSN: 0897-6007
Year: 1999
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Good-looking opticals
Article Abstract:
Laser-driven optical drive technology is still unsurpassed in terms of storage capacity, data stability, media costs and standardization. In terms of speed, however, optical drives still suffer in comparison to magnetic drives. While optical drives are generally more expensive than Winchester drives on a per-megabyte basis, optical cartridges are cheaper than magnetic media, so optical becomes more cost effective when using more cartridges. Optical disks comes either as rewritable drives and those based on MO technology, which combines the use of a high-power laser with magnetic pulses for changing the polarity of a disk's special alloy recording layer selectively. The rewritable optical disk drives on the market can be broken down into four categories: 3.5-inch MO drives, 5.25-inch MO drives, Phase-Change rewritable drives, and two-in-one Phase-Change Dual drives.
Publication Name: Publish
Subject: Publishing industry
ISSN: 0897-6007
Year: 1996
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RAIDiating confidence
Article Abstract:
New entry-level multidrive RAID (redundant array of inexpensive discs) storage systems offer small to mid-sized prepress, graphic arts and multimedia shops RAID benefits, such as faster data-transfer rates and file-access speeds, for under $8,000. Entry-level RAID systems consist of a base configuration, or empty drive enclosure with fans, power supplies and RAID controllers, plus various drives that the user adds according to his or her needs. RAID systems are very expandable; storage capacity is limited only by the drives' physical size and the enclosure's number of drive-bay slots. Arrays of more than two or three drives generally use independent hardware-based RAID controllers, which permits multiple computers to be connected to RAID. RAID's many configuration levels offer different degrees of data protection, data throughput and file access speed.
Publication Name: Publish
Subject: Publishing industry
ISSN: 0897-6007
Year: 1997
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