Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 1 May 2007 at 9:09, Billy Pettit wrote:
The Cricket was the first 1.6 inch hard drive. Never
made it to market
though a few samples exist. It was 20 years before the 1.8 inch which did
get to market.
Didn't HP roll out a very small hard drive before that? I seem to
recall that there was something about the head suspension that would
enable it to withstand very high G-forces.
Cheers,
Chuck
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Billy wrote:
HP rolled out the Kittyhawk in the mid-'80s. It had reasonable success in
some printers and copiers, as well as a few other applications. They are
fun little drives to play with.
The Cricket was about 8 years earlier and had no success - the technology
wasn't there.
There were many other experiments in small factor over the last 30 years. I
remember a Comdex in the late '80s where IBM showed off a 7/8" drive. They
were going to mount 32 of them on both sides of PC card and have a plug in
RAID system. Like all multiple drive applications, the vibration from drive
working gave errors to the rest.
Conner made a 1.3 inch drive in the early '90s. I see them on eBay a few
times a year. I have one that is still operational.
There have been numerous attempts at the small form factor. The iPod was
the first practical application so it drove the 1.8" development and
production. It also drove the 1" development. That turned out to be a
disaster for everyone involved when the Price War on NAND Flash destroyed
the 1" market. It didn't help the Flash people either. (So far this year,
NAND prices have dropped 65%!)
There must have been other small drives. It's an idea that looks great
until you try to do execute. I've only mentioned the ones that I worked on
or have samples to study.
Billy