Memorex International Ltd has now answered IBM’s September 3380 disk drive and 3880 controller annnouncements – but will not respond to the new 3990 controller until it has had a chance to pull one apart (CI No 758). For its new, as yet unnamed, disk drive, Memorex claims a 15% improvement in input-output performance over its previous disks thanks to a new buffer feature, Rotational Position Sensing, installed in the string control function of the disk subsystem. Delivery of the 3380J-compatible disks will begin in March 1988. But users will have to attach it to the old Memorex 3888 controllers until the direct-channel-attach 3686 drive-and-controller, compatible with the IBM 3380-CJ2 integrated combination becomes available in December 1988. Alternatively, users can wait until April 1989 when the Memorex 3888-23 answer to IBM’s 3880-23 controller will be upgraded to take the new drives. In the meantime, the 3888-23 can interface old Memorex drives to 4.5Mb-per-second channels from March next year, and in December 1988 it will be upgraded to maximum memory of 192Mb from the present 64Mb. The products will be built by ex-parent Unisys Corp in Santa Clara, California. The new products will be sold at prices 10 to 20% below their IBM equivalents.
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