13 Mar
2016
13 Mar
'16
5:32 p.m.
On 03/13/2016 03:02 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
On the other hand, I'm told that in mass
production it is extremely
uncommon for a side of a disk platter to have more than the
allowable number of defects, so it seems more likely that a downspec
hard drive would simply have fewer platters (and heads, etc.)
installed, rather than having some disabled for excessive defects, or
some untested.
On the other hand, there were a few small-drive manufacturers back in
the day. I don't think that Disctron/Otari ever made it past 20MB--but
they certainly had a bunch of single-digit MB drives, including a 2 MB one.
It seems that 5.25" hard drive startups came in at least two phases.
Some, like Memorex or BASF gave up after a run of low-capacity drives;
others started up at the 10MB and up category. I suspect this is due to
a certain extent with the economic downturn around 1980. (Remember the
days of 18 percent morgages?) Money was tight and inflation was high.
The "DRAM war" didn't help much either. (16K DRAMs were a very
"hot"
property, often in both senses of being in demand and being purloined).
Good times...
--Chuck