Panther Series        Hard Disk Drives w/ Gigabyte capacities
PC Hard Drive Storage Leaps Above a Gigabyte
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Maxtor's five-drive Panther line of hard disk drives in
5.25-inch internal and external versions ranges in capacity from
0.8 to 1.7 gigabytes. The company claims an average access time
as short as 10 milliseconds.
 
To pack so much data into such small packages, Maxtor solely uses
"proprietary read-channel" technology. Like the Imprimis Elite
line, Maxtor uses Zoned-Bit-Recording (ZBR) technology, borrowed
from the mainframe and microcomputer industries. This means that
unlike conventional recording technology, which writes data in
the same density throughout the platter surface, ZBR packs data
more tightly in the larger, outer sections. The Imprimis drives
use 10 platters and 17 heads; Maxtor uses 8 platters and 15
heads.)
 
Maxtor's drives are available in the Panther 1 and Panther 2
series. Panther 1 drives are available in ESDI, SMD, and IPI-2
interfaces (with 24 megabits per second maximum transfer rate),
with capacities of .8, 1.2, and 1.3 gigabytes. The SCSI-2 Panther
2 series (32 megabits per second) is available in capacities of
0.8, 1.22, and 1.7 gigabytes.
 
Price: $4000 to $5000.
 
Contact: Maxtor Corp., 211 River Oaks Parkway, San Jose, CA
95134, (408) 432-1700.
 
                              --- Stan Miastkowski
 
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