Think of it as a
floptical delusion, like an optical illusion but real.
Like 3.5-inch MO or the MD minidisk, or the 20MB
Floptical. All of them were technological breakthroughs--and none of them was able to define or stimulate a mass market.
Such mediums, as a Random House contract puts it, "shall include, but not be limited to, electronic, magnetic, digital, optical and laser-based information storage and retrieval systems, floppy diskette-based software, CDROM, interactive software and compact discs,
floptical disks, ROM Card, silicon chip, on-line electronic or satellite-based data transmission and other such systems, and any other device or medium for electronic reproduction, publication, distribution or transmission, whether now or hereafter known or developed." [Emphasis added.] In this, one can practically hear not just the desperation but also the despair of publishers who fear that a form unknown may leave them in control of nothing but today's texts.
Floptica 20/m,
floptical drive LANForce Series, RAID disk-array subsystems up to one terrabyte ATOM-AT Thinkpad hard drives & 2.5" hard disks for Compaq, Toshiba & Apple laptops
In a pilot program, Boyington copied technical schematics for tracking stations on
floptical disks readable by pen computers from NCR Computer Corp.
They demonstrated their "
floptical" disk, on which they record magnetically, but position the readwrite head optically.
Removable storage options include SyQuest cartridges, Bernoulli disks and
Floptical discs.