Hitachi 2.8" (was Preserving old floppies, fixed disks...)

From: J. Maynard Gelinas <jmg_at_iac.net>
Date: Wed Mar 18 18:20:35 1998

> Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 23:56:43 GMT
> From: lisard_at_zetnet.co.uk
> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: Hitachi 2.8" (was Preserving old floppies, fixed disks...)

>
> yep, they're quick disks. and they probably belong in the same bucket as
> sinclair's microdrive and phi mag's floopy tape (anyone else remember
> this one?) - nice tries that just couldn't keep up, either in cost,
> capacity or genericity.
>
        Re: phi mag's floppy tape: Didn't this resemble that old
TRS-80 hack the 'stringy floppy'? I used to have one of those when I
was a kid (the TRS-80 Stringy Floppy before I could afford a real 5
1/4" drive), and still remember it fondly. It was a pretty cool
little unit.

        For those who don't remember, it was a high speed tape drive
which used closed loop tape cartridges similar in concept to 8 track
tapes, though much smaller. Each tape could store up to 50k as I
remember, with load times under a minute. This was _impressive_ if
you were used to cassette tapes! BTW: anyone remember who the
manufacturer of the Stringy Floppy was?

--jmg
Received on Wed Mar 18 1998 - 18:20:35 GMT