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March 25, 1992

MINISTOR LAUNCHES ITS FAST 32Mb, 64Mb 1.8″ DISK DRIVES

By CBR Staff Writer

MiniStor Peripherals Inc, San Jose has launched its 1.8 Winchesters as the Portables Series, starting with a 32Mb drive that fits into a 0.4 PCMCIA Type III cavity, which takes two PCMCIA cards. The IDE interface drives also include a removable 64Mb drive that needs a 0.53 slot, and 32Mb and 64Mb drives designed to be built in. The embedded MiniPort 64 weighs 2.65 oz; the MiniPort 64P is the removable version, weighing the same; the embedded MiniPort 32 and emovable 32P weigh 2.3oz. The drives are claimed to have operating shock resistance of 20 Gs and non-operating shock resistance of 200 Gs. A shock sensor circuit enables the drive to sense jarring movements during write commands before data is endangered and the spindle motor uses a patented design with high-shock resistance. They have five different power modes, power management features to extend battery life and a 256Kb buffer to eliminate unnecessary disk spin-ups. An adaptive software power management system enables the drives to monitor frequency and types of commands issued by the host, creating a statistical base of information so that the drive can adjust its power consumption based on variable power time-out values. Access time is 18mS and data transfer rate up to 5M-bytes per second. The twin-platter 64Mb – formatted drives will go for under $6 a Megabyte – about $385, and the company expects that to fall. The line will be made at MiniStor’s Singapore factory and are currently in pre-production with a target of 2,500 a day within 12 months, 12,000 a day by 1995. Customers panting for the drives include Samsung Electronics Co in South Korea, and Seiko Epson Corp in Japan, where its affairs are being handled by Techno Alliance of Tokyo. Evaluation quantities of the drives will be out next month at $425 each, with production set for third quarter.

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