History (1988): Fast 1 HDD by Aura With Four Actuators

Announced by Aura Associates (Saratoga, CA), the Fast 1 provides, in a half-height 5.25-inch package, 204MB of storage capacity, where access to data is achieved in 2ms on average, and an average latency acquisition time of 1.8ms.

This data acquisition time is typically five-six times faster than competitive products.

In the data transfer mode, Fast 1 provides data from the disk at a rate of 40MB/s.

The data is stored on thin film media supported on especially small substrates which are thin and of small radius (2.5-inch disks).

There are four actuators that act in a totally individual and separate manner. Each is controlled by their own servo and read/write chain. Each actuator accesses each track on separate surfaces completely independent of the other. Each actuator is located with respect to the other three actuators so that it is located at an angular distance of π/2 from its neighbors.

The drive includes 5 disks meaning 10 data surfaces and a total of 40 magnetic heads.

Fast 1 transfers information to and from the disk by use of Metal In Gap (M.I.G.) heads.

Each actuator is controlled by its own distinct read/write and servo channel. There is no sharing of the information channel.

Fast 1 will be available in the third quarter of 1989.

Aura Associates was founded in mid 1986 by Dr. Scott to assess and develop leading edge products and technologies in the rotating mass memory market. Wendell Bale joined the company in late 1986. Since that time, the company has engaged itself in consulting contracts and is also presently engaged in a major development contract for a compact disk drive. During this period Aura has been developing a line of test equipment products that will be available in ear1y 1989 options to system and product designers.

Aura is presently designing and developing a compact disk drive under contract to a large electronic product oriented company. It has full program responsibility for the disk drive that will eventually be manufactured in large volume by the contracting corporation upon completion of the design and development program.

Specs of Fast 1

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 December 1988.