2 TB "upgradeable" hardrive, starting at $599

M

MindBuster

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 6, 2002
Messages
3,115
Huh, who are these ppl :confused: Never heard of them, look at the crappy website where they announcing the ProtoDrive 2 TB "upgradeable" harddrive.

They say they managed to put 2 TB of data on one harddisk, with no compression.

Demonstration the 29 of June 2004 in Anaheim, California.

Check it out...

http://www.protoscience.com/protodrive.html


(mods, sry, but i placed this in general hardware as "news" instead of in data storage)
 
I do believe that, that looks like styrafoam... if I'm not mistaken.

But, I'm not going to pass judgement... until someone else chimes in :p

/quick edit: scratch that, I think I'm going to jump on that 1.2 Mbps dial up modem :p ;) :rolleyes:
 
LMAO

Just read the PDF about the drive, here is how you "upgrade".....

QUOTE:
__________________________

Upgrades are as easy as 1-2-3:

1). Call the ProtoScience toll-free customer service number.

2). Pay an upgrade fee and obtain a unique passcode.

3). Type the passcode at the ProtoDrive’s upgrade prompt to instantly boost its capacity.
__________________________

:D :D :D

/edit:

A 1 cent/GB fee is required when placing an order.

Will be shipped Q3 2004 :p
 
I am calling these guys as we speak. They are still open at 11:00pm eastern apparently...I will let you guys know what they say =)
 
I asked him questions about the hard drive and the modem and I got the run-around on each. Not a single producting word came out of that guys mouth. He kept spouting made up techincal patent-pending words that had no meaning whatsoever....

I am going to call back tomorrow just for shits and giggles.
 
I live about an hours drive away from these guys, maybe I'll give them a call later today to get a tour and a tech demo.
 
So this is how they're able to offer all those games in the Pantom!

I knew there had to be some techno-secret I wasn't privy to.
 
breifly reading over that, I cant rule it completely out

These drives use our patent-pending Triple-Attribute encoding technology
Click to expand...

could well be a varient of a perpendicular recording or other tech

without knowing exactly what Triple Attribute encoding is (some sort of Hammer ECC? \ Parity or an actual areal density improvement or the above link) you cant out of hand dismiss it.

Locking out capacity in a HDD isnt new
its often done with firmware so that a single model of HDD
(and combination of platters) can be sold as multiple capacities
its rare that they can be unlocked, but not unheard of

FAQ

Q: What is TAM (Triple-Attribute Modulation} and how does it work?

A: TAM is our patent-pending data encoding technology. When hard drives store user data, they encode it first, i.e., they convert the binary bits of user data into a different series of bits that can be more efficiently stored on the disk. Standard encoding systems basically use a one-to-one relationship between the user data bits and the encoded hard drive magnetic bits. TAM assigns several data bits to each encoded magnetic bit, thereby permitting much higher data densities to exist on the disk.
Click to expand...

this is what parity calculation in a RAID array are (RAID 5 or 3 typically) but it requires CPU overhead, its not entirely out of the realm of possibility that they are doing a whole HDD in parity
think of it as a very dense compression

exactly what kind of performance this would yeild is unknown
I doubt it would be that good, and Id question where the CPU cycles are coming from the board or is there a RISC processor integrated?

If I get a little free time, I'll do a patent search
 
Here's the thread from avsforum.com from earlier this year.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=358682&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

From the thread:
"The TAM patent application is serial # 10/370,363 filed 2/18/03 at the USPTO'"

Since it is not yet a granted patent, there's no way to view it without the release of the assignee (PSI). Normally, you'd see the product before the patent is granted.

While you can't completely discount this company and their technology, I would liken their chances of shipping this product to my winning the lottery. Check out the other stuff on their website, like the protobike...

http://www.protoscience.com/protobike.html
 
Press Release
"Removable-media products are particularly well suited to the TAM technology because TAM is implemented at the hardware level and does not involve any changes to the removable disks themselves. Manufacturers can therefore produce a TAM removable media disk drive product without negating their current investment in removable disks. Overall, this means a much lower development cost for the new removable media disk drive product."
Click to expand...

if it ever does see the light of day it would be as a licensed technology
itd agree its improbable that the company itself is in a position to bring it to market.

as far as personal VTOL go, flying cars have been a reality for awhile
why not a bike :p
 
Originally posted by rayman2k2
i'd rather milk a male cow
Click to expand...

Military Intelligence reports an unanticipated and astronomically small chance of this
and gives a firm estimate that harmonious discord would result if you tried

just another oxymoronic exercise :p
 
U-3200 SCSI huh?
Pay to upgrade with passcode?

I'll have to start recommending this to people!








...I hate.
 
Ice Czar said:
this is what parity calculation in a RAID array are (RAID 5 or 3 typically) but it requires CPU overhead, its not entirely out of the realm of possibility that they are doing a whole HDD in parity
think of it as a very dense compression
Click to expand...

What does parity have to do with compression?

To me, it sounds like they're just describing RLL encoding.

.B ekiM
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top