Miniature Marvel
Dave Barkin is impressed
by IBM's 1 GB Microdrive
Well I just purchased
a professional level digital camera, the Nikon D1X DSLR.
No, this article isn't a review of this camera, although
it will be used with my Hades computer. If people want
a review, write to me at MyAtari and I'll be happy to
do so. This short little article is just to let you
know the IBM Microdrive will work just fine with an
Atari. You'll need a SCSI PCMCIA card reader and Big
DOS in your AUTO folder and the drive kicks in and works
just like any other SCSI peripheral. You'll have all
the ease (or all the trouble) of any SCSI device. Check
back on my article in issue 14 about digital cameras
for a slightly more detailed description of how this
hook-up works.
How fast is this drive?
That's a good question and
I'm glad I asked it. The simple answer is, "Beats
me." You guys are going to have to pay me big bucks
to reformat the drive as an Atari drive. I bought it
for my digital camera and while I'm not sure, I suspect
the camera won't be able to access an Atari formatted
drive.
However, as-is (IBM format)
the drive is 3/4 the speed of the IDE drive that came
with my machine. A more practical number, because speed
of the drive is dependent on many other factors, is
a comparison. So here is a simple data transfer benchmark:
- 10 MB file from
the IBM drive to my IDE drive: 8 seconds
- 10 MB file from
the IDE drive to the IBM drive: 10 seconds
![[Photo: IBM 1 GB Microdrive]](images/ibm1.jpg)
Why get
this drive in the first place?
The drive is expensive at about $350
US. It comes with a special adapter to plug into your
card reader. As the accompanying picture shows, it's
not very large. In fact it's unbelievable that a real
hard drive is that small. So to describe this machine
as portable is an understatement. It's also pretty tough
- it's built to function while walking around and taking
pictures - try that with a regular hard drive. Still
I suspect it won't stand up well to be used as a frisbee
(IBM quotes the non-operating shock resistance as 1,500
G at 1 ms, but don't try it - Ed). Once again if people
are ready to pay me I'll be happy to do this extreme
kind of testing.
chatobarkin@myatari.net
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