MicroMedia Inc, New York, is marketing a Hitachi electronic imaging system imported to the US by C Itoh Electronics as the MicroMedia Optical System 100, a stand-alone electronic imaging system designed to be expanded to become the hub of an organisation’s information resources. The System 100 uses optical disk drives in a system designed to store documents and reproduce them as clearly and quickly as a fine photo copy machine. Although designed for stand-alone use, the system can be networked to a company’s existing computer to manage millions of documents and images. The System 100 uses compression techniques to store 60,000 to 80,000 letter-size images (depending upon page composition) on a single 12 double-sided write-once optical disk; up to four drives can be used in the system to put four optical disk files on line at any time. Larger storage capacity is available with an optical jukebox with 16 or 32 disks for each stand-alone system, which can store up to 2.5m pages. A host computer can also be used to control multiple systems, handling paper files, micrographic images and optically recorded documents. Data processing is combined with image processing and communication of both images and data is possible either locally or to distant sites. System 100 pricing begins at $94,500 and ships start this quarter.
