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Credit Card sized 5GB HD to arrive late this year
An anonymous reader writes "PC World reports in this article:
"The card actually has moveable parts inside its thin shell," says Bill Heil, vice president of StorCard.
A spinning wheel made of Mylar is engaged when the card is inserted into a StorReader, a USB-connected drive or PC Card that reads and writes to the StorCard. The reader is expected to retail for under $100 and the cards for under $15 each, Heil says.
The StorCard and StorReader are scheduled to become available in the second half of 2003."
According to the storcard website these cards have a datarate of 5Mbytes/sec the rotational speed is 3600 rpm and the average access time is 15 msec. All taken from the overview of the StorCard from the campany website.
This site mentions a 5Mb/s transfer rate which I guess would be more than enough for DVD movies.
However, it says that this figure is for the 100Mb version and that it "scales" to the 5Gb version. What does that mean, I wonder? It will be 50 times faster for the 5Gb version? I don't think so, somehow - 50 times slower? That might be pushing it for DVD usage at 100Mb/sec..
Q.
They have a very interesting white paper explaining how they`ve managed to make HD compliant disk without having it in an airtight sealed container. Clever stuff.
"Come," called the old man, "come now or you will be late." "Late?" said Arthur. "What for?" "What is your name, human?" "Dent. Arthur Dent," said Arthur. "Late, as in the late Dentarthurdent," said the old man, sternly. "It's a sort of threat you see." Another wistful look came into his tired old eyes. "I've never been very good at them myself, but I'm told they can be very effective."
From StorCard.com: The StorCard has the flexibility and form factor of a credit card and conforms to ISO 7816-1 including mechanical flexibility along the longitudinal and transverse axis without damage to the IC or the magnetic recording medium.
I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
Erm. Mylar is also what film (as in what goes through the projector at your local megaplex) headers are made of (the actual film is usually polyester).
Some speakers have their active surface made of Mylar.
Light, yes. Flimsy, not necessarily.