IBM watchers are looking for the company to up the ante in the top-end Winchester disk drive market with a quadruple capacity version of the 3380 disk drive. Dubbed the 3380Q, the 10Gb drive is expected before the end of the year, and is unlikely to be offered as a field upgrade to any of the existing 3380 models. Reasons for this are that it will require a new controller capable of handling higher channel speeds than the current 3Mbyte per second maximum, and that it is expected to consist of four spindles, therefore not fitting existing cabinets. IBM is widely expected to come up with either 4.5Mbps or 6Mbps channels shortly.
