History (1996): TEAC Abandons Magneto-Optical

The Japanese firm Teac will put aside its magneto-optical technology in order to join forces with other companies adopting phase-change technology, originally developed by Matsushita Electric Industrial.

As a result, Teac will start production of drives based on phase-change technology under a licensing agreement with Matsushita.

It is planning to make between 30,000 to 40,000 drives per month starting in the summer.

From this point on, therefore, it is safe to assume that 3 manufacturers will dominate this market, all of them Japanese: Matsushita Panasonic, NEC and Teac.

The latter company launched its 3.5-inch magneto-optical drives at the end of 1991, but subsequently chose to cease this activity about a year and a half ago.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 100, published on May 1996.