Removeable Optical Disk Drives?

[Doug Meyer]

The only tidbit of information I can give you is about Pinnacle Micro.
I've been doing a wee bit of investigation into Optical Media, and can
share the following.

Pinnacle Micro, Inc.
Kim Mowry, Sales Coordinator
15265 Alton Parkway
Irvine, CA  92718
1-800-553-7070

The have 650MB and 1.2GB systems w/512KB and 1024K sectored media.
Read/Write cycle guarantee is somewhere in the neighborhood of 3M cycles
if my memory serves me correctly.  Talking with them, they claim to have
thousands in the field and no disasters to report (not that anybody would
ever talk openly about their disasters).  They do have their systems
installed on every variety of Sun Server and Workstation around, and so it
seems that their "Personality Adapter Kits" are high quality.  If you're
just looking at onesie-twosie purchases, the list price is probably a good
measure:  650MB drive for $4695; 1.2GB drive for $9300; Personality Kit
for $995; Media for $250.  They do have typical discount curves for volume
purchases of 2-9 and >10.  Also, they have an educational (university)
discount program. 

Other stats are:
65MSec Average Seek (actually more like 50-55Msec on Suns)
SCSI ANSI X3.131-1986 Host Interface
Burst rate of 1.2 MB/sec.
10+ year Media storage life
One year Limited Warranty

We are considering trying to get one in here on a trial basis sometime in
the not too distant future, but have not moved on it yet.  I found
Pinnacle to be very cooperative and responsive.  

We aren't really excited right now because magnetic media technology
continues to outstrip magneto-optical technologies both in density and
(most interestingly) in access speed.  If you're only needing a backup
media for a system, I'd recommend 8mm tape where the shoebox costs
$4000-5000 and each tape costs about $8.  But if you have other needs,
like frequent and rapid random accessing of the backed-up data, etc., then
perhaps optical is the preferred method.  Have fun!

Blessings.

Douglas Brent Meyer
Mississippi State, MS  39762       E-Mail Address:oscarmir at ee.msstate.edu