History (1991): 1.5-Inch HDD

HDD manufacturer Ecol.2 was the first and only manufacturer of 1.5-inch HDDs.

They were revealed in October 1991. Both the EC1-50 and EC1-100 had a capacity of 50MB and were supposed to be in production in 3Q92.

Ecol.2 (Point Arena, CA, near San Francisco), short for Ecology 2000, was a pioneer in glass disk drives, but never managed manufacturing them.

It was privately founded in June 1990 by Jack Schwartz, president and CEO, and Charles Woodward, VP marketing, two former executives of Areal Technology. Schwartz has 30 years experience in the disk drive industry, spending 18 years with IBM (senior engineer) and one year with Shugart Associates (director of engineering). He was the founder of RMS, Maxtor and Areal. Wooward has been GM of Areal. The main reason they left Areal is that the company has decided to focus on 2.5-inch HDDs based on glass disks when they believed there was a potential market for 3.5-inch ones for laptop computers.

The first products, with first evaluation units supposed to be available in 3Q91, was a series of 3.5-inch HDDs named Glasstor with one 100MB single glass disk. They were supposed to use voice-coil actuators, thin-film heads and thermoplastic HDAs. The mechanical package was using actuator and single drive motors of Ecol.2 design.

The glass media was developed in cooperation with Japanese firms Hoya Company and Nippon Sheet, shareholder of Areal.

The first series includes one-inch high drives and formatted capacity of 50MB or 100MB, the second one 0.67 inch high with 100MB or 200MB. Their power consumption was 1W offering IDE and then SCSI interface.

Ecol.2 said it had available 18,000 square feet of facilities. Off-shore manufacturing was projected in Europe and Far East.

It began developing a marketing and technical support network with US sales and technical support in Point Arena, sales and administration in San Jose, CA. First distributors announced were Disclean Service in Paris, France, and Data Maintenance in Battwill, Switzerland

Since of 1990, it promised a one-inch high 50 or 100MB unit with one single glass disk and less than 20ms access time, with ecology in mind using recycled materials whenever possible. Ecol.2 tried, in 1990, with no more success, to venture in 1.5-inch form factor with a 50MB drive.

The HDD manufacturer went out of of business in 1993.