History (1997): Quantum First (but not Last) in 18GB 3.5-Inch HDD

Quantum took its competition by surprise by announcing the first 18GB 3.5-inch disk drive, despite the fact the company has only been shipping 9GB units for a short time, and this after a few of its rivals had already begun.

The high-end Atlas III (see table for specs) holds 18.2GB on 10 platters addressed by 20 MR heads. The areal density hits a maximum of 1.4Gb per square inch.

Quantum was also the first, after Seagate, to offer a drive in FC-AL serial interface (availability in 1H98) and with XOR technology specifically adapted to RAID new 3.5-inch high performance HDDs subsystems. All that’s missing is a rotational speed of 10,000rpm.

“That’s coming at the end of ’98, beginning of ’99,” said Brendan Collins, Quantum’s workstation and system storage group (WSSG) product marketing manager.

He also pointed out that the next capacity point will be 36GB, “probably with glass media.”

Furthermore, he indicated that in the company’s last quarter, the WSSG posted profits for the first time, and saw its revenues increase by 76%, due in particular to significant shipments of Vikings to Sun Microsystems. MKE has been down this road before.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 113, published on June 1997.