Floptical. Technology Primere fred Thomas PREFACE iomega’ enc optical technolo- arena, gear san dist op ak oe silazes atwmme Se or moon Since the days of the original Personal Computer, Boppy disk stonage has been 3 part of almost every machine, During the last decade, the power and presence of personal computers have expanded at a vvoeiferous rate. However, die progress of Doppy disk storage has Jagged bebind—until ow. Now a new genera tion of storage with Floptical drives and media will expand the possibilities of the deske top computer, The ‘capacity of Floptical diskemes will full the growing data storage requirements of today’s lange disk drives and handle your needs for lity th rch Meise disk ‘media. And this new Relative Disk Storage Hopstchy ste 2.8 er ike aren tes prions ceibyes mooie | Tddbp Floptical® Technology Primer fom and the fomegs logo are registered trademarks of omega Comporation, Floptical sa registered trademark of Insite Peripherals. all oer company and proxet names ae treks Of thle respective companies. Copyright © 1992 omega Corporation, Al Rights Reserved Printed in USA, PEPIPIEA, Yery High O: Fluplical Dinko lonegs Comporition dimension in storage is 21 Wes Hi00 ous [possible on the computer oy, Ukah 84057 you are already using,TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ....1 APPLICATIONS .....6.s000e00002 FEATURES AND BENEFITS . FLOPTICAL TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION .........4 FLOPTICAL TECHNOLOGY ..... tt te DISKETTE TECHNOLOGY .........7 THE FUTURE. ...........8 GLOSSARY ......9 unk for 8 moment shout the lappy disk rive in the computer you use taday, For mast ff you, it isa 3¥2-inch drive that stores ether ROK or 1.44MB of information per disk. Now imagine a drive inside your computer that could read, write, format, and boot your triton 3/tinch Noppy disks. but also had the ability 10 sore 21 megabytes (MB bf information on a single disk, Plas, the new diive performs three times laser than your regular Aoppy dive. This i th Plopiical drive A Floptical dive is simply a removable data EMEGA ee ie INTRODUCTION stonige device that uses adapter cards are avail fnew generation of 3!2- able froma number of inch Floptical diskettes different vendors ‘with 21MB of capacity. ensure you the best pos: The new drive works just sible products in a com Tike your systems current petitive market. floppy disk drive, and will actually read and write your existing 3¥ ‘This Primer has been written to give you a inch doxbledensity (DD) clear understanding of “72OKB and high-density (HD) 144818 Aoppy dlsks, (These are often Flopticsl producis can teferred tos IMB and benefit your work. In the 2ME floppies based on nest section, we will uunformaiced capacities.) explore some of these Thus, a Floptcal drive applications in more can replace the existing detail and show you S¥vinch floppy dive in some of the advantages your system or ean add This booklet will also functionality of high this exciting technology 0 you ean see how explain che featnes and benefits of Floptical prod ucts inchiding drives ancl dlsketes. Next, there isa ‘capacity storage t0 your system. Floptical tech nology’ isa ow indus seetion on the Floptical urystan. Technology Association, dard for an inchisty group of Very High companies developing Density and advancing the tech (HD) Sor nology. Then, a technical age. description af dives and Drives, diskettes will explain diskettes, how it all works. It and host concludes with a few iskettes Hloptical Joos iba of 37nd we Poppies aan se ffwords about the furore of Floptical technology Gaia Foy ik Floptical Technology « . provides igh pac eae rc) stone to comple! roving Ble ses and ard 14a diskeopacties some ter 1989 Tom 9M YEAR APPLICATIONS optical drives and dlskettes open a ‘whole new sec of appl cation possibilities but the teal power of this, new technology i that is also ideally suited 10 the applications you are already using on your computer tomlay. A Floptical drive just like a floppy disk drive—only Digger and fasier. Ie ean handle all of your needs for personal removable Key Applications ‘of Floptical Technology Bile Storage Backup Security Data Transfers Convenient Sorage of Lange Files storage such as: File Storage. Whether removing old files from hard disk deve, archiving project data, or simply ‘organizing less frequently tased data, 21MB capacity per diskette is ideal Backup. Today's large hard disk drives demand bhackup t0 protect the important data they store Using traditional floppies, however, can be very time consuming and inconvenient, Usin 2IMB Flopiical drive, this task is mueh faster and sch easier. File Security. Ploptical dlsketies lave dhe cae rye data files ty 10 store la 2 and can be physically removed from the PC and locked in a safe or file cabinet for masimum protection, Data Transfers. Newly ‘everyone his the need to share information with ‘others locally oF around the world. ‘Tacltional oppy disks often do not have enough capacity but ‘compact, rigged Floptical diskettes are excellent for such file cnsfess Convenicat Storage of Large Data Sets, New applica- tions for compares proliferating that demand Farge amounts of conve- nent storage. Malimedi, skin publisiag, pre sentation graphics, CAD/CAM, animation, imaging, sill video, per based computers, local storage for dskless net worked systems, work- flow processing, large optical technology offers many features at divecly benefit wsers Capacity. With 21MB of stonige, a Floptical dliskewe provides more than 14 times the storage capacity of high-density loppies. When using, many backup programs sion feature, capacity of over HMB per disk is possible, Compauibiliy One of the nique features of Floptical des is down. ‘wan compatibility with previous floppy disks Since 3¥%2-inch Mloppies are now the standard, the ‘market expects compat: bility with existing media The result isa single drive that can replace a ssandaed 3/2inch floppy rive, with more capacity and greater speed, and sill vead, write, format, tind boot & taditional floppy disk. Floptical databases, and other applications are expected tobe new growth mar kes for Floptical technol ogy, In fact, Floptieal drives are sited for use by anyone who is eur- renuly using a high vol ime of floppy disks and is looking for a more convenient and efficient method to store data FEATURES AND BENEFITS dives can be installed as dive A: of personal computer and be the boot device, of set as any aber drive volume and used as another storage Form Factor, The familiar 3¥inch standard has been used for loppies fon imuny years. Over seven billion Roppy disks are already in use throughout the world! Floptical disketes and drives have the same small Form fae tor. The familiar size dliskee is convenient for hhandling the medi, and allows drives to be com: pact enough to fit in 3¥vinch sorage bays Performance. Floptical drives offer higher per formance than standacd floppy drives. Typical access time is 65 millisee fonds compared 10 as smu as 150 ms for a ‘onventional floppy dive, Rotational speed is increased to 720 apm, which reduces average Inceney to 42 ms v8 pi Toppy dl 0pm, which es 10 an avenige later cy of 100 ms, Perfor mance of a Floptical dive relative 1 a floppy sill vary by application, but the improvement will bbe about three times Key Features and Benefits of Floptical Technology Features Ben Capac Convenient Storage of Data Compatibility Replace or Enric Your Floppy Drive Form Factor Saal Size Performance Saves Time Wide Support Nally of aver of Compesine Products 3‘Wide Support, Many mn ufaeturers of drives diskewtes, host adapters andl computers offer Floptical products for a wide range of computer incloding TBM POs based on fi ad Microchannel archi- rectures; Apple Macintosh/Quadia com- puters; worksations, and networks, This ensares broad availability of com petitive products to the marker FLOPTICAL TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION (MEGA Makers of Beruoutli® INSITE SM KE maxell. Founding Companies... fe FA cde ste Pipher Jemeg Corporation, Ml, 3M Corporation, ani Masada econ Toss. ainda wade ao- Alition compet of ‘srnanunen ts Pia ecology Aoneition FTA aos food ws caabih opt drives aed sat me bia ‘ery igh Deny VHD) ig menbona he FIA include tnsice Peripherals, omega Corporation, Maxell, 3M Corporation, sand Matsishits-Kotobuki Flecronies Industries, Lid. In addition theze are several Associate and Supporting member com panies. Approved optical compatible prodhicts ean be identi- fied by the use of the FEA logo. The FTA'S goal is to establish Floptical tech nology as the next dle facto stadia by ensur ing compatibility of drives, dsketes, and host adapters. This ade association has set sta dads for interchange of ‘media in any Floptical dive and enjoys the par Lieipation and suppor of all the major manufactur- es in Floptical products. Flopuical technology has already received endorse meat as the VHD floppy stand! from the Microcomputers wigets Association (oN), an inflvential group of IS managers and system professionals in Fomtune 500 companies, The benefit to users is availability of Flop products from a variety (of sources. Mubiple manufacturers ensure that the market will receive competitive and compat ble proucts and offer security that the techno! ‘ogy wall continue to progress long into the fhnure ™ Approved opts conpatihe products can Be ea: fev the FA ow. Tronnesite te provements of Floptical echnolog may be helpful 10 get an understanding ef conven- onal Roppy disk record ing. Flexible disks have their roots in digital mag. netic recording devel ‘oped in the 1950s, Over ‘ime, form factors have been reduced from inch dliameter disks 10 Syqinch to Siainch form factors since then. A standard! 3¥inch flex bile disk drive uses a magnetic recording scheme with a density of FLOPTICAL TECHNOLOGY 155 tracks per inch, This results in 1-44MB of tusuble data storage on a 2MB (unformatted) high density disk, Tracking is clone using a stepper ‘motor to move the head toa pre-determined rad al position. A floppy ctrive is blind” in that there is no continual feedhack process to sense the actual head position relative to the disk. The ability for cif ferent drives 10 accurately set the heudl position to the correct tick nes sary for interchange of Taser Diode lolographic ferent Photo Detector ~ Collector ie Hloptical skette Hoptical Technology ... chioes high capac being opal sero posioning pack ‘moe treks on ik thin conventions Bopp media bas limited the track spacing, bence lim ited capacities for these devices. The name Flopticat comes from combina. tion of flexible avagneic ancl optical posi- tioning, Floptical ech nology accomplishes its 1i+fold increase in ca fty by putting more tracks of data on each side of the diskette, Floptical drives use the same proven magnetic recon ing of conventional flop- py drives with an opsical tracking system 10 allow very precise and repeat able positioning of the hhead aver the disk Floptical clsketes are smaifactared ith a per smrent patter of con centric grooves stamped fr etched into the media ata spacing of 204 ‘microns, The fat areas between groves, called Jands, provide a higher reflective surface than the rooves, Since the servo ack are permanently cembedided in the disk hey cannot be erased. ‘The chased eos serve ‘racking system staAt WW \ WX LED System tse & Holographic S Optical Tracking Tracking Schemes cbeiseieireieer aN eer eer Siecle a with a Light Emiting Diode or laser as a light source, Light travels tough 3 set of lenses and opricl elements, then i ditected via a mir tor to the diskette sur face, The reflected light is passed buck through the mirror, focused throu rodetector, completing the serve loop. ‘The sig nal in the photodetector is monizoted to constantly ‘update the head postion over the diskewe. This ‘optical serv peovess enables track density of| 1245 tricks per inch, compared t0 135 tacks ‘Since Conventional .. per inch for foppies, that resuls in very high capacity per disk. On rrore advanced dives, Holographic Optical have grooves forthe opti cal system to follow In this case the Flopiical dive relies on either & stepper motor of reflec ‘Tracking is used instead tions from an optical lin ‘of conventional single ear encoder mounted on, track following. Wath this the base ro sionilate the technique a grating pat: tein i projected onta the dliskere surface. This Moiré detection method ‘enables reflection ever an Like conventional flexible aea of the disk several tracks wide resulting in higher signalto;noise done using a magnetic ratio (see figure ar upper hed that alkers the mage lef. netic orientation of the minute particles on the diskette, Floptical diskeres are coated with Dharam ferrite CBaFe), a track spacing used on conventional disks (see figure at lower lef. disks, actual recording on a Floptical diskene is Previous generations of Alppy disk media do aot raignetically sensitive raters Barim fernte magnetic pasticles have a hexagonal shape that lay at of the surface. This provides longer magnetic retention and allows > Encoder higher density recording than needie-shaped partk cles used in conventional ‘gamma ferric oxide media. This higher grade floppies dona conan sono spoons, ke opal se mirorplis ‘help ad conto ck pron br ‘magnetic particle is also ‘more envifonmensally stable 1o ensure reliability fn extreme conditions. Compatibility with con ventional floppy dlsks is achieved with a dual gap) ‘magnetic head in the Floptical drive, One gap has a very narrow spac ing for eading and wr ing Very High Density Hloptical diskettes. The ‘ther gap has geometries for reading and writing douible-density and bigh- density floppy disks (see figore at right) Auice zsmed ine wt section, Floptical technology relies on the seevo tricks oF grooves ‘embedded in the disk surhaee for aceurte posi tioning to achieve igh capacity. These grooves are not continuous but are laid down in short Fours, somewhat like the smuarkings that divide Janes on a highway. There see in fact, 1,499,400 distinet marks fon each Flopaical diskette. ) sero a Hopi ca bp, uD Diskette Mode Dual Recording Modes ‘Theda ip magnesia in a Holic de wil real and write Fos shes or creat Lapis or cacpatiy wh exsng med, DISKETTE TECHNOLOGY Theve ane 1wo fundamen: tal manufacturing processes that are Stamping and laser etc. Ima stamping process, raster cle is created fi From this master, daugh- tee dies are made that are used to manufacture indi Vidual diskenes, Alter a diskette is coated, ext and ready for is servo fnurkings, it placed in a lange hydraulic press ‘which carefully nquees the grooves into 1 7 face from the die. As the penetnates the ddiskete surface, material 1s displaced up as well as awa, leading to possible variation in surface reflectivity. Dies must be kept extremely clean to avoid any material between the diskemte and the die which would cause imperfections in the finished media, For the laser etching process, each diskette is Placed on a precision spindle and an Argon YonAVOOUULOCUONGEDEQUDENUED laser exches each of the seqvo marks as the disk spins. This proce fensues an optical patern for high contrase while ‘maintaining a smooth sux- face, At the same time, this process allows for the THE FUTURE optical technology recording tracking fo achieve high capacity and compauibili ty. This clever synergy of proven technologies las created a new standard thar meets the market demand for reliable and convenient removable stonige. But where do- wwe go from here? Certainly, observers of The Floppy Diskette Surface... OQ0000000GE000000N0008) XUOULUONNaOUOLUNO magnetic reference tobe located on diskewe with very Magnetic Data Track ZL \ 20.4 microns 5 microns Optical Servo Tracks (Grooves) e uick the high accuracy using the laser auidance system, with laser etching, every diskete is essentially a computer teehnology know that successful technologies ase continw ally improving. Ma Fxcturets of Floptical drives, adapters, and disketes intene! to make this happen as well. The furore of Floptical tech: nology i sure to inchie higher capacities from tighter tack spacing and bit spacing, and lower ‘oss from manufacturing efctencies at hs 8 her vo tas pemanea roots so brs tha are deseo procs posion eh for ih pac rearing loptical diskettes from all approved manufactur ts, Whether stumped oF laser etched, are capable ‘of working in any Floptical drive dition, pee foumsince and relibility weil continue to be tenhanced with improved signs. ‘The biggest change, however, will be the large number of com: pater users whe will Semand, then expect, the capabilities provided by this technology Average Latency. Tie rime requized fora disk 10 rotate one-hall revolution, Barium Ferrite, A type of magnetic par ticle used in some recording media fnchuding Floprical «is Downward Compatibility. The abiliy t© read and write earlier generation meth such as conventional floppy disks. Floptical Technology. The combination fof optical servo track positioning and magnetic read-andwvrite technologi used in 3¥/inch Very High Density floppy disk drives. Flopuical is a regise tered trademark of Insite Peripherals Gammic Ferrie Oxide. ‘The wype of mag etic particle used in conventional op py disks, Holographic Optical Tracking. An optical 10 system that uses a holographic element to project a pattern onto the disk surface and measure the reflection over seve This technology is patented by omega Corporation, laser Etching, A: manufacturing process used 10 create the servo markings in Floptical diskettes by etching grooves in the surface of the diskette wih a laser UD, Light Emitting Diode, which is an tlectronic light source, milsecond, ne thousinety of a se cond GLOSSARY Moiré pattern. An independent pattern seen when vo geometrically regular patterns, such as sets of parallel lines are superimposed. Optical element, ems including lenses, prisms, slits, ete. that form find contsol 3 light beam. Reference Track. A special magneste track placed on Floptical diskettes used by the drive to calibrate the optical wacking system with respect to the imugnetie recording ticks Servo, ina disk drive, a system that controls the ouput of a device such as head actuator position hy monitoring, the signal of another device such as optical signal strength VHD. Very High Density diskewe