Gee, that's too bad . . . I don't spend money on "the industry" so I don't
follow the high-tech stocks. Maybe it didn't work so well over the long
run.
By the time they started making disk drives, it was so costly and difficult
to build anything but an exact copy of IBM's circuitry for attaching a hard
disk to a PC, which was by then the only mass market remaining fairly
healthy, they probably felt they had little choice but to use their own
devices rather than eat them. This probably alienated their customer base,
but, since it was going away anyway . . .
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, December 08, 1999 2:48 PM
Subject: Re: Free NCR tower in Miami FL.
>
>
>On Wed, 8 Dec 1999, Richard Erlacher wrote:
>
>> I don't know this for certain, but I was once persuaded that IBM had held
>> the patent on 2,7 RLL and let it expire in '83. There were, of course,
lots
>> of other run-length-limited codes which would also have worked, but the
2,7
>> was so well documented and worked so well, that everyone jumped on the
>> bandwagon once it became available. Of course, WD came out with a
chipset
>> that supported RLL almost right away, too.
>>
>> They lost a lot of customers when they started making disk drives, though
>> they're a major player in that realm now. I guess it worked out OK for
them
>> (WD).
>
>I think that is problematic, Dick, when you look at the recent price of
>their stock - now sub $4.
>
> - don
>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jeffrey l Kaneko <jeff.kaneko_at_juno.com>
>> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
>> <classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
>> Date: Wednesday, December 08, 1999 10:47 AM
>> Subject: Re: Free NCR tower in Miami FL.
>>
>>
>> >
>> >
>> >On Wed, 8 Dec 1999 09:37:24 -0700 "Richard Erlacher" <edick_at_idcomm.com>
>> >writes:
>> >> >MFM disk controller was made by NCR, but it looks like a 'cookbook'
>> >> >design using the WD-100x chipset.
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >> SMILE when you say that, pahdnuh! That cookbook design is what made
>> >> the microwinchester drive so simple to include that anyone with two
>> >grey
>> >> cells and a little PLL knowledge could put together a winchester
>> >> interface. That's why they became so cheap. It was the only way to do
>> >your own
>> >> controller at a competitive price for several years, until SMC brought
>> >out
>> >> their 9224 chip. Unfortunately, by that time the patent on RLL
>> >recording
>> >> had expired, so everybody wanted RLL.
>> >
>> >Well, I merely wanted to state that while NCR 'rolled their own',
>> >it really wasn't anything special. The wd-100x chipset certainly
>> >was revolutionary, however. That meant almost anyone with a wire-wrap
>> >tool and enough parts could interface a winchester to just about
>> >anything (like say, a Xerox machine?). That was a major breakthrough
>> >in 1981, but by 1984 (when my machine was built), it was pretty
standard.
>> >
>> >Who held the patent on RLL, and (consequently) lost their shirt
>> >when it became standard on 'smart' disk drives?
>> >
>> >
>> >Jeff
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >___________________________________________________________________
>> >Why pay more to get Web access?
>> >Try Juno for FREE -- then it's just $9.95/month if you act NOW!
>> >Get your free software today: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.
>>
>>
>
Received on Wed Dec 08 1999 - 16:05:43 GMT