History (1988): Imprimis and Micropolis With Over 1GB on 5.25-Inch HDD

History will remember Imprimis Technology, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN) as the first company to have announced a 5.25-inch form factor HDD with over 1GB.

Imprimis Wren II

This was on October 31, 1988.

Two weeks later, Micropolis Corporation (Chatsworth, CA) was making the same kind of announcement.

“Zone-bit recording, pioneered by Imprimis, has allowed us to break into the 1GB range without moving to new, higher-risk technology,” said Tony Maggio, VP of engineering for small disk division of Imprimis.

The 1.2GB Wren VII was achieved by applying ZBR to the Wren VI 766MB design.

Micropoliss Corporation announced two Winchester HDD drives with 1.2GB storage capacities in a 5.25-inch form factor. The drives feature average seek times of 14ms and data transfer rates of 20 Mb/s.

The new models are the 1510 Series model 1518-15, equipped with ESDI, and the 1590 Series model 1598-15, featuring an embedded SCSI. Both are based on the mechanics of the company’s 380 and 760MB drives.

Evaluation shipments will begin in 2Q89, with quantity production initiating during 4Q89.

The drives are expected to sell in 1,000 unit quantities to OEMs for under $2/MB.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠11, volume ≠1, published on November 1988.