Rewritable Optical disk, similar in size to
3.5" floppy diskette.
- Has the capacity of an optical disk with the features of a magnetic disk
- Removable high capacity off-line storage.
for use in;
- Desktop publishing, backup, multimedia, Cad Cam
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- Looks like a 3.5" floppy only twice as thick
- Metal protector hides the rainbow sheen of optical media
- Speed: roughly half that of a hard disk
- Read-write heads at never fly close to disk surface, eliminating the possibility
of head crashes.
- Connected via SCSI interface.
- Manufacturers claim over 1 million write cycles without deterioration.
- Logical format varies, so there is no guarantee of compatibility between MO
drives from different manufacturers
- Some have capacities greater than 1GB with comaprable speeds to a hard disk.
- Cannot be corrupted by magnets, humidity and (normal) temperatures.
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Writing:
- Uses a magnet and laser to write to a Compact disk. Disk is inserted label side to
magnet, laser on other.
- To write data an intense laser briefly melts the plastic coating allowing the magnetic
crystals to align with an electro-magnet. The magnet changes the polarity according to the
magnets field.
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Reading
- To read data a low powered laser focuses on the crystals. Some reflect light others
don't creating the 0 or 1 bitknown as the Kerr effect.
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Pinnacle Micro Tahoe
- 640MB (1.3GB compressed)
- NZ$1300.
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Fujitsu 230Mb (unformatted) MO, Feb '95
- Average access 35 ms
- Average seek time 30 ms
- Data transfer rate 2.1 MB/S.
- Rotational speed 3,600 RPM.
- Prices (Feb '95): Drive = NZ$750 (+GST)
230MB cartridges = NZ$55 +GST.
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(1998, Apr) Hogan, M., [2], [76]ComputerWorld '95 | 
Sony NZ
[Rev: 22/11/98] 20-May-97 © 1997-98 V/2-Com (Verhaart), P O Box 8415, Havelock North, New
Zealand.
