History (1988) Ricoh and Olympus to Jointly Develop Erasable Optical Disk and Drive

The Japanese firms Ricoh Co. Ltd and Olympus Co. Ltd have signed an agreement to develop and produce erasable optical disks jointly.

First samples are scheduled in the last quarter of 1988 for ¥500,000.

Ricoh is going to market the product and plans sales of 10,000 units for the first year and will also be in charge of the interface for a personal computer. Olympus will handle the mechanical parts of the drive.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠9, volume ≠1, published on October 1988.