History (1995): ATG Sets 16GB Record on 12-Inch WORM Disc

ATG Cygnet (Toulouse, France) has broken the world record in the storage industry for capacity on a single platter: 16GB on two sides of a 12-inch WORM disk.

The previous record was set by Sony with 15GB.

The other important player in the WORM market is Philips LMS with a 12GB disk.

The three companies have adopted the double-head system, i.e. two mounted heads, one for each side.

Eastman Kodak currently offers a disk 14cm in diameter with 14GB on both sides (the next step is supposed to hit 25GB), but the disk must be flipped manually to access the full capacity, since the drive has only one optical head.

ATG also announced a mini jukebox, the Hexadisc, which features six removable media for a 96GB total capacity.

On the French firm’s new VFD 16000 drive, the two heads do not act independently. They travel in tandem, and read or write on both sides simultaneously.

Within six months, ATG anticipates a second model with independent heads, one which can read one side while the other separately writes the second, since the drive will be equipped with two SCSI ports.

The new optical disks are compatible with ATG’s jukeboxes that go from 1 drive and 22 platters to 2 drives and 141 media, which will mean a maximum capacity bordering on the phenomenal: 2.26TB without compression.

Down the road, the next generation of ATG optical disks will be based on a smaller wavelength blue laser of 430nm, realized in collaboration with French manufacturer Thomson CSF (Orsay, France), an achievement which will permit an increase to 30GB by 1997, and 60GB in the year 2000, according to Jean-Claude Beckmann, ATG’s new VP, European sales.

He also indicated that the firm is currently negotiating with IBM to include ATG’s optical disk and jukeboxes with Big Blue’s On Demand 6000 subsystem. The additional capacity would enhance storage and thus allow for applications such as offline printing.

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.