History (1997): Caleb, New Player in High Density Floppy Disks

Start-up Caleb Technology is also getting in on the high capacity FDD act, with the added bonus of offering a great price.

With an access time of 30ms and transfer rate less than 1MB/s, the UltraHigh Density 144 has one of the weakest performance

But its capacity, 144MB, exactly 100x greater than that of the standard floppy, is only topped by Fuji/Sony’s product.

More than anything, the UHD 144 should be the least expensive in the group, announced at $70 end user price, and at $40 to $50 in OEM quantity.

“We can reach below $5 for the media,” said Hannah Valadez, marketing coordinator.

Like its competitors, Zip excepted, the UHD 144 can read and write 1.44MB and 720KB floppy diskettes.

Caleb promises mass production in 2Q98, in Korea, after pilot production in the company’s Boulder, CO HQ. Production of media will be subcontracted in Germany and Japan.

Who is this new firm that is taking on an already crowded market? According to its president, J.A. Ahn, the company was founded by Bob Perera, who originally conceived the new product and registered 4 patents, notably for the head, the media and the servo writing. Perera, who used to work for the Floptical project at Iomega, was pushed out of Caleb by the management he brought in, but still retains a substantial shareholding. Caleb’s principal owner and financier is Kabool Electronics, a Korean firm with roots in the storage industry, assembling HSAs for Samsung and Read-Rite, among others. Ahn in fact comes from Kabool. Within the Caleb team is at least one figure worthy of note: Dr. Toan Doan, VP engineering (formerly with Cyberdisk, DEC and Maxtor).