Olivetti 3MB ST506-interface drive?

[Jules Richardson]

On 03/13/2016 01:15 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> Hard drives smaller than 5MB were not unusual.  For example, the Rodime
> RO-101 was only 3MB.

Interesting... I've had 'real' ST506's before, but I don't think I've ever 
seen or heard of anything less than that (in a 5.25" f/f)

> My list shows Olivetti-branded drives starting at 10MB forever.  So
> probably someone else's drive.

Right, they did a 10MB and 20MB, but I've not heard of anything else...

These 3MB ones were definitely Olivetti - this was from an ex-Acorn 
employee who worked on the drive project. 3MB to 20MB seems a big jump - 
but it makes me wonder if they were working with drives that had three 
surfaces masked out due to manufacturing defects; one surface would be 5MB, 
and going from 3MB per surface in a pre-production drive to 5MB in the end 
product wouldn't be such of a leap.

J.