The data storage requirements of organizations have increased manifold. Software has also become powerful and, at the same time, voluminous. With usually more than several hundred megabytes or even gigabytes, the storage capacity of 1.44 MB diskette is insufficient.
Maxell Corporation, USA, has developed a 314 inch Magneto-optical (M-O) disk, having storage capacities in excess of 640 MB. M-0 disks with capacities of 2 GB are also available. Data can be read as well as written onto these disks. The new disks are compatible with all 3W inch magneto-optical drives, such as those manufactured by Fujitsu, Olympus, and others. Some of the significant improvements of the M-0 disk over the conventional 1.44-MB diskette are:
- Write speed that is more than 100% faster than the speed of conventional media. This is achieved by bypassing the erase data phase during a rewrite operation. Thus data can be directly overwritten on existing data during an overwrite operation.
- If the M-O disk is double-sided, it can store up to 4GB of data, which is more than what many hard disks can store.
- An archival life of more than 30 years, the disks are rewriteable over 1 million times.
- Protective layer of exceptionally durable hard coating to safeguard surface from heat or moisture.
Some applications of the new M-0 media include: mass archival storage, document/image storage, and multimedia storage using data compression technology.
Magneto-optical Disk
Now that you have become familiar with the PC environment, you will see where the PC fits in the computer spectrum. You will be given a bird's eye view of the computer range, from micro-computer (of which the PC is a well-known example) to supercomputers, the emphasis being on their capabilities and application areas. In this session, you will also take a closer look at the PC range itself.