Slashdot Mirror
Gigabyte Matchbook Drives From IBM
A number of people wrote in about the New York Times article regarding IBM's new storage breakthrough. They've been working on their microdrives for some time now, and it appears to be paying off. 1 gig in something the size of a pack of matches. Cool.Update: 06/20 04:58 by H :Check out the press release from IBM, thanks to Asbestosrush.
It looks like nytimes has shut down the 'partners.nytimes.com' back door. Oh well, you can try 'slashdot2000' without the quotes as username and password.
I read that this has been possible for a fair length of time, but was not released for marketing reasons. This was in the June issue of PC World (The UK one, not the Ziff-Davis one)
-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent
Sure, there are lots of them, think professional recording gear and a pair of Sennheisers.
----------------------------
Linus H. Torvalds on rollerblades! You know, there are uses for compactflashes other than stuffing Britney Spears on them! Goto dpreview.com or Steve's digicams and other and see why we need larger storage media. I have 48MB CF in my camera and I can fit 140 images on it. Maybe good for one day, but hardly for 2 week vacation. (Unless I get more flashes/portable storage/nearby cybercafé) And I have old 1280x760 camera, wait until I get my paws on one of those 2000x1600 cameras.. Btw, I want that Canon D30!
J.
It was the basis for the movie Bladerunner.
There seem to be two versions of it out there. When I first got it, there were a few points where it had "***" to indicate missing pages of manuscript--the author's suicide prevented completion. When I bought a used copy a couple of years ago, that had apparently been cleaned up.
[Hmm. I *think* that was this book. Or was it _The Unteleported Man_?]
_Gladiator at Law_ (Pohl Anderson?) is another one that's been changed. I read it maybe 20 years ago, and bought a copy (after years of looking). In the process of updating it (after 20 years?), it lost a lot of its bite . . .
Think back 20 years. $500 was the price of a 100K floppy . . . controller not included; add another $100 for that.
Disks to feed that drive were $5@, though small discounts were available.
A couple of years later, a 5mb drive became available for micros. I think it started at about $5k, tumbling to $1500 after a couple of years. They were awkward under CPM, which had no directories (although user numbers let you do a tiny bit of organization). The apple II divided it into something like 35 deparate 143k drives.
Oh, and it was about $50 to align those floppy drives. If you moved thi machine a lot, this was a regular occurrenc e . . .
Quest marketed a "stringy floppy" which sounds like the same thing for hte version of the Elf. It wasn't all that much less than the floppies of the time, though, iirc.
I want to say that there were a couple of similar things, but I can't think of them offhand.
These things are amazing; a guy at work showed me a 350Meg model in a compactflash adapter, which is great for digital cameras, except I wonder what the battery drain would be like.
Anyone know?
--
Try banging your shin against a coffee table.
Lessee...assume walking speed of about 2 meters per second...assume table is fixed and does not flex...assume leg/foot speed is 2x walking speed as it is coming forward in your stride...assume skin on shin is 2mm thick and will deform completely upon impact.
Accelleration = change in velocity / change in time.
A = (4m/sec - 0m/sec) / (2m/1000 / 4m/sec)
A = 4m/sec / 0.0005sec
A = 8000m/sec/sec
1G = 9.8 m/sec
Soooo
Ag = 8000m/sec/sec / 9.8 m/sec/sec = 816G on your shin. No wonder it hurts!
OK, so you have to run into the table to get up to 1500G, BFD.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
Heh. I'm startled to discover that there are others who measure technology advances by the opportunity to ingest them.
I was thrilled when the first matchbox hard drives came out. "My god, I could swallow it!" And then those super-small modems: "My god, I can swallow the Internet!" And cameras: "My god, I could do a helluva webcam!"
I'll be estatic when I can choke down a high-resolution projection monitor...
--
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
I love the ghost stories like this one that are so short-lived... Someone should make an index of these. Sometimes the blurb is more informative than the story that gets left on the homepage. What is the criteria for this? Does taco get a posting point even though the story gets remarked?
Anyway, visit the link above to see the OTHER story about the IBM drive. It's like driving through a ghost town!
~GoRK
This ALMOST makes MP3 obsolete for portable players ... there is one more factor.
One of the reasons that hard drive based portable MP3 players work well is that when you are playing MP3s, the disk drive only has to wake up occasionally to read a burst of data. I believe that for one of the current products, the drive spins every 10 minutes or so to fill a 15 MB buffer. This helps keep the power consumption on the player down.
Playing uncompressed audio requires that data be read at the rate of:
4 bytes/stereo sample x 44100 samples/second x 60 seconds/minute ~= 10 megabytes/minute.
so playing uncompressed audio using a 15M buffer would require the disk to spin every 90 seconds instead of every 15 minutes. Alternately, a much larger memory buffer could be used. However, large memory chips are expensive and consume more power.
Either way, power consumption is going to go up.
So MP3 may hold onto the niche, for power consumption reasons!
Seriously. Many digicam and PDA owners report low battery life after switching from flash to the microdrive. 1.2GB type II PC card flash memory is available. Now you know.
If your carrying around a 1 gig match book harddrive, then it is safe to say that won't be getting any babe's phone numbers.
Linux O Muerte!
Nope - I know enough about batteries to be using good quality NiMH batteries, thank you very much :)
I think my problem is that I'm using an old Kodak DC210. They have a vicious reputation for devouring any and all batteries fed to them.
--
The gift of death metal does not smile on the good looking.
Think how many babe phone numbers I can store on a 1 GB matchbook cover...
--
Compaq dropping MAILWorks?
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
1000 Gig/5 MB-Average-MP3-file-size = 200 mp3 files (mf).
The next site to slashdot will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and start slashdotting it early!
The "very small space" I referred to is the amount of space available for acceleration (which depends on the amount the colliding objects flex under the impact -- that's why the surface hardness matters), not the total falling distance. The collision time is, of course, a function of this distance for a given collision velocity (a direct linear function, if we assume constant acceleration).
/.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
What planet is IBM labs on, that this kind of acceleration happens in 3 feet? Would the surface of the sun even provide this much G force?
The shock is when it lands with a delta vee equal to its falling velocity (or more, if it bounces) in a very small space.
/.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
I agree that MP3s aren't as good as advertised, but I don't think you're going to be able to tell the difference when it's playing over Palm Pilot speakers.
Devil Ducky
Devil Ducky
MY peers would get out of jury duty.
First of all, the term "theoretical limit" is a bit vague, but the limit which seems most directly relevent is what they call the superparamagnetic limit. This is the point at which the thermal energy which tends to randomize magnetic moment are stronger than (or just as strong as) the amount of magnetic energy stored in an individual bit. This effectively means that you may be able to store the bit, but it won't stay stored very long. Anyway, most scientists "estimate" this limit to be about 100 Gb/sq. in. (IIRC) I say "estimate" because magnetic field calculations is still more of an art than a science, and the calculations make some pretty strong assumptions about geometry. I believe the above mentioned limit assumes all of the magnetic moments are alligned in plane, for instance, which is very poor arrangement from a Gb/sq.in. perspective, but currently is the only practical way to arrange a drive. There are also other assumptions about the media being uniform, the substrate being flat, etc., etc. When we no longer assume many of these assumptions, we have more opportunities for greater density, at the expense of greater technical challenge, so the question really should be, "What is the theoretical limit assuming the same fundamental drive design", and as I said before that is about 100 Gb/sq.in. By the way, the read head design alone has changed fundamentally at least two times in the past 10 years (inductive heads, magnetoresistive heads, and GMR heads), so the assumption of drives remaining fundamentally the same until we reach this limit is a pretty weak assumption.
And you get a very wearable, very useful computer.
I WANT. NOW!
www.eFax.com are spammers
I want to know if there's going to be any way to hook it up to a handspring visor, because that would REALLY kick ass. Someone should make a compactflash springboard adapter, that would be REALLY useful.
-motardo
Note to self:
Figure out an interface for this and a lego mindstorm so that an AI program in LISP maybe created for my Lego creation. A little duct tape to secure the drive to the mindstorm. And I can take over the world!!! (Providing that I do it in the 10 min before the batteries go dead)
New and old photos of the IBM Microdrive can be viewed here: http://www.wirephoto.net -- Mike
sure. on the site it states they will be available in the fall for consumers.
It's not the fall, it's the sudden stop.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
(Reuters) -- International Pyrotechnical Devices, based in Poughkeepsie NY, today announced the debut of the PFA or Personal Flame Accessory. It is a paper matchbook which holds one billion matches. "Our goal is one smoker - one matchbook," said company founder, Fred E. Tunalu. The PFA, which is about the size of an IBM System 360, will contain copious cover art which is precisely targetted at the consumer. "By formatting each matchbook at one specific person, we hope to deliver the ultimate in marketing to a narrowly defined demographic," he said. (continued on page 42)
HP had matchbook-sized drives about 6 years ago, and HP reps gave out little plastic mockups of them to any designer who'd listen, as they tried to find a market for the things. Not enough capacity for a laptop, and palmtops were still at the Newton level. The first major application, of all things, was heart monitors. Those have now switched to flash memory. So these things have been around for a while, looking for an application. The Palm XVIII, maybe?
You're close, but a little off the mark. Not primarily MP3's but for use in Tivo style devices and DVD replacements or portables. Having magnetic storage this small reduces heat,meaning power and with less power devices become portable. I was involved with some of this back with SATCOM a few years ago. Nothing quite this evolved but one project, the 19NP-Orb series had some potential but were simply too large and the general consencus was to not mess with a good thing until technology caught up with science. In the end, devices like the 19NP-Orbs are entertaining to watch as they develop, but in reality not many of us will ever get a fully public opportunity to touch and manipulate the product. Only a select few for the perverse reasons of wanting a press release or some other such valueless reason. Too bad devices like this available to the public could do great things for exposing new technology.
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
I can't remember ever seeing a portable audiophile-quality device, except maybe if someone came up with headphones with a digital pulse-width modulation amplifier that would take optical in, and you played from one of the high-end sony discman players that has digital optical out.
Or, well, the old radio shack one with the same thing.
Portable devices don't need top quality. That's really just not the idea. You can't get that kind of quality on the road typically in any case, because of the ambient noise. And antisound is not a solution - It makes everything sound hollow, which is not what you're looking for.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
the problem comes when someone hax0rz you and plays an audio message at you all day. "YOU ARE OWNED YOU ARE OWNED YOU ARE OWNED..."
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Put this puppy in a digital camera and you would have something you could really travel with. Most photographers would have no problem spending $500 on that much storage- High-rez uncompressed photos galore!.. And for the average consumer, you could go crazy with snapshots over a long vacation in that much space. Now we just need the speed to get rid of latency, a simple yet powerful cataloging system and a 30 -year battery.
air and light and time and space
The iPlay MP3 player by maxtech take CompactFlash cards, so it should be able to use the 1 gig microdrive when it is released.
In 1982 Sinclair annouced Microdrives for the ZX Spectrum, although it took a year for them to arrive. The QL and ICL One-Per-Desk (a QL clone with integrated Lan and telephone) also used them.
They consisted of a loop of tape in a matchbox sized case. Capacity was approx 80-100K (wow!). Reformatting after use would increase the capacity due to tape stretch.
They were unreliable anf propriatory (only Sinclair made them, and they sold initially at 5 UKP per cartridge IIRC). They were also slow due to seek times in seconds.
Typical Sinclair - designing their own solution when cheap storage, such a 3.5" floppies, was already emerging.
I wonder if the name is still Trademarked??
hymie
There was nothing on IBM's website about power and speed. Does anyone know how these to metrics compare to the flash used in MP3 devices?
As a side note, it is now possible to choke to death on a multi-gigabyte hard-drive.
---
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Scientific American had a great article on magnetic storage, its limitations, and what technologies are on the horizon to supplement or replace it.
Yo dawg, I heard you like the Ackermann function, so OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD
This kind of technology is clearly a boon for portable MP3 players.
Will Metallica now sue IBM?
What's that smell? Ah, that's my karma burning...
It's often said that only small companies are innovative. The number and range of cool technologies that IBM (about as big as they get) are turning out, from IC to storage technology, seems to contradict this.
Come on, it's much easier to do s/www/www10/ instead:
http://www 10.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/biztech/articles /20blue.html
The hacking level on slashdot is amazingly low these days.
IBM triples capacity of world's smallest hard disk drive.
Halo Data Devices are introducing a 250Mb microdrive in a type I compact flash format. Small enough to fit in loads of devices, not least my trusty Psion 5.
How about some other uses...
But the killer app...
Build a system with this for storage, one of their nice low power, high integration PPC chips for CPU, and their `toothbrush' eye projector displays, ViaVoice for input (and a keyboard jack), add a wireless interface and linux.
They seem to have almost all of the pieces together now.
The last part of the article talks of a Tiqit Matchbox PC priced at $1,495. Imagine a matchbox sized MP3 player with 1 GB storage. The price might not be there, but the idea of 1 Gig of music stored in a space smaller than your wallet is quite attractive. Maybe the future of wearable computers is coming closer...
It's only when we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything...
At this size you could make a laptop with a RAID array in it... that's what everyone needs. :)
BlackNova Traders
And that brings me to my point: it's wonderful that IBM has a microdrive like this, and it speaks volumes for miniaturization and where technology is headed. But what is the expected use for most people today? Not much. At $500, this is way out of range of all but a few consumers. (Heck, it would cost more than the TRGPro itself!) At present perhaps the best feature of the 1GB microdrive is to drive down the price of the 340MB microdrive so people can buy them instead.
--
Have fun: Join D.N.A. (National Dyslexics Association)
"the ability to withstand a 1500-G shock. That is equivalent to a drop from a normal office desk onto a medium-thickness carpet"
The shock is when it lands with a delta vee equal to its falling velocity (or more, if it bounces) in a very small space.
Actually, this is incorrect, and the space it falls in has nothing to do with the space it falls through (except for wind resistance). The large shock is created by the velocity coming to a stop or even reversing itself in a near-negligible time.
Assume for a moment that a disk fell one meter onto the ground and bounced a small distance back into the air. A one meter fall at 9.8 m/s/s would result in a final velocity of 4.427 m/s. Let's also assume that it bounces up into the air at a velocity of 1 m/s, resulting in a net change in velocity of 5.527 m/s. The final assumption is the amount of time the disk contacts the ground, so let's assume a conservative value of .001 seconds.
Acceleration is equal to velocity divided by time, so we take our 5.527 m/s net change in velocity and divide it by .001, our time. This results in a net change in acceleration of 5527 m/s/s due to the disk bouncing off of the ground. Dividing this by earth's acceleration, 9.8, results in the G-Force of the collision, which is 564 Gs.
As shown by this conservative estimate, great shock can result from small forces when exerted over a negligible time. A bounce of a hard object may take even less than a thousanth of a second to recoil upwards, which I would guess is where IBM Labs is getting thier figures.
Dave
To get around it, find a NYTimes partner. The easiest way is to go to Google and search for "link:partners.nytimes.com". Take the first one off the list, PressDemo. Go to their site and look at their links to partners.nytimes.com. Note that they are all of the form "http://partners.nytimes.com/somepathtosomestory?. html?Partner=PressDemo&RefId=YY1js4EFnnn n.FnBoj"
To get the story you want (i.e.library/tech/00/06/biztech/articles/20blue.ht ml) just substitute it in there. So, hit the link http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/biz tech/artic les/20blue.html?Partner=PressDemo&RefId=YY1js4EFnn nn.FnBoj anv voila.
Now, I won't defend this as being either convenient or ethical, but it works.
I can see the headlines now: Los Alamos Nuclear Secrets Flushed Down Toilet.
The Los Alamos Laboratory reported that two matchbook sized disk drives were lost. Investigators suspect an employee accidentally dropped them into a toilet...
(AP)--In the latest of a series of embarassing security breaches, officials at Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory reported that two matchbook-sized hard drives were topped with peanut butter and eaten, allegedly by its newest employee, one H. Simpson. Sources quote Simpson as responding, "D'oh!"
I looked into the abyss, and the abyss looked into me--and we both winked.