Fremont, California-based SyQuest Technology Inc reports that it is developing a new family of 1.8 disk drives and claims that they will be first to bring PCMCIA-compliant removable plug-in card cartridge storage to the mobile computing market for notebooks, sub-notebooks, pen-based computers and personal digital assistants. SyQuest, pioneer of the small form factor cartridge drive market when it launched its 3.9 units about a decade ago, says it wants to exploit the investment of over 10 years and $30m in refining removable drive storage technology and associated cartridge media. SyQuest says it is currently developing drives with capacities of up to 100Mb that will fit into any Type III PCMCIA card slot, and has already begun introducing the 1.8 product to major OEM customers although no date has yet been set for availability. The same high density technology is also being applied to 5.25, 3.5 and 2.5 drives with higher capacities to be offered.
