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History (1993): IBM and Philips Jointly Develop Optical Drives

MTA-3127 costs $595.

IBM Storage Systems Division (San Jose, CA) and Philips Consumer Electronics’ Key Modules Group (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) announced on October 4,a joint agreement to develop 3.5-inch and smaller optical disk drives.

The first result of this venture is IBM’s model MTA-3127 3.5-inch magneto-optical drive launched the same day.

History 1993 And Philips Optical Drives

The joint development agreement has allowed the 2 companies to pursue a mutually advantageous course of product R&D without a resulting increase in cost and depletion of resources.

The 3.5-inch and smaller optical disk drive technology is being developed jointly in Eindhoven by Philips and in Fujisawa, Japan, by IBM Storage Systems Division,” mentioned the shared press release.

No other precision was given by the 2 partners on their agreement that could concern other optical drives than the magneto-optical ones.

The unlimited joint development was working for more than a year, but signed recently,” said Chris Johnson, manager marketing and sales laser optics at Philips Consumer Electronics B.V. (Eindhoven, The Netherlands). “We will supply the laser optics. Afterwards, we intend to manufacture together for low cost production in a low cost country. We are not selling the optical drives and we have no intention to sell them.”

He added that there is no agreement on the media between the 2 companies.

Until now, Philips was marketing M-O Pioneer drives but didn’t manufacture M-O devices, only units for CD-ROMs and WORM disks.

On its side, IBM is completely involved in M-O drives, 5.25-inch or 3.5-inch, these last ones manufactured in Fujisawa.

On the contrary, the Dutch produces glass M-O disks and has an agreement with Hoechst on plastic media.

The agreement between the US and the European could also suggest a way of facing the multiple and serious Japanese competitors.

Finally, behind all this, there maybe is the possibility for Philips to have access to the M-O technology for the consumer market (in which Sony is already present with its Mini Disc), even if today Johnson said that: “For us, M-O disks are essentially for computers.”

The MTA-3127 for 127MB capacity has 2 main specs:
1/ it’s only one-inch high (like Fujitsu’s last model available for quite some time), meaning a light weight, 481 grams;
2/ it probably has the industry’s lowest power dissipation, an average 4.3W, which should allow the development of a portable model with a suitable functioning time on batteries.

In addition, protection vs. contamination of the drive’s optical components is afforded by the same sealing techniques used in IBM’s advanced multi-function 5.25-inch optical drives, providing nearly maintenance-free operation, according to the partners in the joint agreement.

This was a disadvantage in IBM ‘s latest model that didn’t even have a shutting trap where the disk was inserted.

The new unit also includes an automatic write calibration sequence to ensure performance across a wide range of environmental conditions and media.

OEM evaluation of the MTA-3127, sold by IBM as well as Philips, are priced at $595, with availability for 4Q93.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 69, published on October 1993.

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