(Japanese Site)
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| Sony Shows Prototype 200MB HiFD Drive at Windows World Expo
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July 8, 1998 (TOKYO) -- Sony Corp. displayed a prototype of its next
-generation high-capacity HiFD drive at Windows World Expo/Tokyo '98
held July 1-4 at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba prefecture.
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HiFD is a new storage medium and the drive is being developed by
Sony and Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
HiFD means "high capacity floppy disk." It
is a storage medium of about the same size as a 3.5-in. floppy disk
, yet it is capable of holding 200MB of data, or about 140 times as
much as a standard floppy disk (See chart)
. Moreover, because HiFD drives have read/write compatibility with
standard floppy disks, keen interest exists on when they will be
commercialized.
Two types of HiFD drives were demonstrated at the Sony booth, an
external model connected to a notebook computer via a PC card, and
an internal HiFD drive built into a desktop computer. Both types
are expected to ship in the fall of this year.
The external HiFD drive can be connected with a PCMCIA card or with
the parallel port on the user's PC. The internal model shown at the
Tokyo trade show used an ATAPI interface, although Sony may instead
use a SCSI interface. Universal serial bus (USB) and IEEE 1394
standards also are being considered.
The price of the HiFD drive is not yet decided, but it will likely
be set at a level to compete against rival products.
"We're looking at how it will compete in terms of pricing against
the Zip drive and SuperDisk," a Sony official said.
Because the HiFD drive is intended to replace the conventional
floppy disk drive, Sony will concentrate on promoting the internal
model and not the external HiFD drive.
"The large storage capacity of the HiFD may immediately suggest its
application in design, DTP and other such fields," a Sony official
said. "But we anticipate that most HiFD users will be general
consumers who have been using standard floppy disks. Sony hopes to
provide an environment that will enable ordinary PC users to handle
video, graphics, MIDI data and other mass data with ease."
For this reason, a HiFD drive built into a personal computer will
probably be marketed before any external models become available.
(return to news)
Related story: Windows
98 A Big Hit at Windows World Expo/Tokyo '98
(Hi-Tech News Center)
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