History (1995): From 540 to 640MB/Platter on Quantum Fireball HDDs

Fireball drives for desktop PCs have expanded from 540 to 640MB per platter.

They now boast the highest capacity per disk in the market. With this move, Quantum Corp. (Milpitas, CA) has specifically fixed on the capacity of the CD-ROM. From now on, the 8.89cm magnetic disk can store on two faces exactly the same amount of data as one side of a 12cm optical disk.

Only a few years ago, industry analysts had predicted that magnetic technology would have difficulty catching up to optical technology. Today, magnetic seems to have the advantage, but it remains to be seen whether HDD manufacturers can match the upcoming DVD technology, now that Philips/Sony and Toshiba/ Matsushita have reached an accord establishing an optical standard of 4.7GB storage capacity on a 12cm disk, even if it will take a few years for the new platters to reach the market.

The new Fireball line features two models, one at 640MB on 1 disk, the second at 1,280MB on 2.

The 5,400rpm rotational speed is combined with Quantum’s patented third generation PRML read channel. The embedded servo scheme handles positioning information with user data on each disk, to enable continuous flow of data streams and eliminate thermal recalibration, a crucial factor for video applications.

The units support SMART drive diagnostic procedures, and both models are Windows 95 and Novell NetWare certified.

Two points are worth noting: 1) the cost of OEM evaluation units for Fireball 640 and 1280 drives (see table at left) are identical to those Quantum announced at the beginning of the year for the previous generation of 540 and 1280 Mbyte drives, several million copies of which have sold since last April when they were first shipped; 2) up to now, the development time between announcements of new generations of HODs has been 9 months, but will soon be down to 7.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠93, published on October 1995.