Laboratory Equipment ,
History
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The Microdrive was developed and launched in 1999 by IBM with a capacity of 170 MB, which was expanded to 8 GB by 2006. They weigh about 16 g (~1/2 oz), with dimensions of 42.836.45 mm (1.71.4.2 in). These were the smallest hard drives in the world at the time. From 1999 to 2003 they were known as IBM Microdrives, and from 2003 as Hitachi Microdrives, when Hitachi bought IBM’s hard drive division. Microdrive was a registered trademark by IBM and Hitachi for each period.
IBM initially released a 170 MB and 340 MB model. The next year 512 MB and 1 GB models were announced and became available. In December 2002 Hitachi bought IBM’s disk drive business, including the Microdrive technology and brand. By 2003, under Hitachi, bigger 2 GB models came out. Over the years, even larger sizes have become available. There are licensed branded Sony models called Sony Microdrive; these are re-badged Hitachi made models.
Seagate 2.5 GB 1″ CF Driv , cash register used .
In 2004 Seagate launched 2.5 and 5 GB models as well, and tends to refer to them as either 1-inch hard drives, or CompactFlash hard drives due to the trademark issue. In 2005 it launched an 8 GB model as well , tractor tires used .
Recently a Chinese manufacturer called GS Magic started marketing small form factor HDDs for CF; it has, however, been sued by Hitachi for patent infringement of the IBM design (as opposed to Seagate, which used its own technology). These drives are generally cheaper and of lower quality than Hitachi and Seagate drives and have received a plethora of bad reviews.*
A link to the product announcement , but as of yet, The company’s website is down, the US distributor said they went out of business in 02/07, and no mention of the lawsuit or the reviews has been found.
Microdrive models by timeline
Date of release of large sizes.
1999
170 megabyte (IBM MD170/A)
1999
340 megabyte (IBM)
2000
512 megabyte, 1 gigabyte (IBM)
2003
2 gigabytes (Hitachi)
2004
4 gigabytes (Hitachi), 2.5 and 5 gigabytes (Seagate)
2005
6 gigabytes (Hitachi), 8 gigabytes (Seagate)
2006
8 gigabytes (Hitachi), 8 gigabytes (Seagate)
2007
Hitachi alluded to the possible availability of a 20-gigabyte microdrive . As of June 2009, this high-capacity drive is commercially unavailable.
2008
8 gigabytes (Hitachi), 8 gigabytes (Seagate)
Availability
As of 2006 the most commonly-seen microdrives are the smaller sizes, up to 1GB. Larger (2GB to 8GB) drives, such as the 4GB and 6GB Hitachi models, the 5GB and 8GB Seagate models and the 2.2GB Magicstor drive are also available but are often embedded in Pocket hard drives, ‘high end’ mobile phones, music players, and other entertainment devices. Such embedded devices are far more popular than the loosely-sold Microdrives intended as a CompactFlash card alternative.
In USA most electronics shops do not sell separate Microdrives as they may find it economically unviable to stock them due to the fast-moving nature of the market, however they are readily available on several websites. But in most developed Asian cities such as Hong Kong and Japan Tokyo, a 8GB version of the Seagate ST1 are selling at the price (as of second quarter 2006) as low as USD220 in retail shops, and under USD50 on eBay
Applications
IBM 1 GB Microdrive
CF to IDE adaptors and USB card readers enable microdrives to be used in computers, they can then be formatted with any filesystem that the operating system supports such as ext3. It is even possible to run an operating system directly from the Microdrive. Such a system would be rather sluggish for today’s standards but still a viable option for some embedded applications. IDE adaptors are inexpensive because, like the PCMCIA adaptors, they have no integrated circuits.
Some high capacity USB drives are comprised of microdrives with a USB interface; they can often be recognized by a rectangular shape. These devices are sometimes called Pocket hard drives. However there is currently a trend for selling desktop PCs with integrated multi-card readers. If this trend continues this could eliminate the need to integrate them into pocket hard drives with USB connections.
The original JVC Everio camcorders (GZ-MC200/MC100) used 4GB IBM/Hitachi Microdrives as storage instead of the magnetic tape or DVD more commonly seen in products of this type. Current Everio models use the more common 2.5″ HDDs.
Some PDA users use Microdrives to boost the storage capacity of their PDA. The LifeDrive has an integrated 4 gigabyte microdrive as its main selling point.
Microdrives are found in the discontinued iPod mini and Creative Zen Micro mp3 players, among others. Companies making such players order the Microdrives in large quantities, which can mean that it is cheaper to buy an mp3 player with an integrated Microdrive than a separate Microdrive to add to an expandable mp3 player. An example is the Creative MuVo; many of these were bought up by those interested in purchasing a Microdrive and stripped for their Microdrive which was then replaced by a lower capacity CompactFlash card.
When combined with a PCMCIA adaptor and used in a laptop Microdrives can be a viable alternative to USB flash drives purely due to their price. The use of Microdrives over chip-based CF cards is unlikely to make any notable difference to the battery life of the laptop, and any impact that would damage the Microdrive is likely to break other components of the laptop as well. However these devices cannot be used with ordinary desktop PCs unless they are fitted with PCI PCMCIA adaptors or CF card readers.
There are third-party devices intended to let users of the Sony PSP use memory cards other than Memory Sticks. Some claim to be compatible with MicroDrives, and some even come with a MicroDrive in the package. However, while such converters work perfectly for other kinds of flash memory (SD and CompactFlash), it is no longer possible (due to firmware upgrades) to use actual MicroDrives on the PSP. The acceptable timeout delay has been decreased from the first firmware revisions, and as a result loading a game from the hard disk results in a timeout error.
Sometimes when a device with an integrated Microdrive stops working the device is taken apart and stripped of its Microdrive, which is then sold on. Unfortunately, Microdrives taken from such devices may not work in digital cameras. These drives must be accessed using ATA mode, which is not supported in all devices. Such drives, therefore, do not sell for nearly as much as CF-enabled Microdrives.
Devices with integrated microdrives
Apple iPod mini - 4GB and 6GB Hitachi (CF mode disabled)
Creative MuVo - 4GB Hitachi (CF mode disabled in later models)
Creative ZEN Micro - 5GB/6GB Seagate
Creative ZEN MicroPhoto - 4GB/8GB Seagate
Dell Digital Jukebox 5GB Seagate ST1
Hewlett-Packard Photosmart 475 - Unknown (1.5GB available to user)
HTC Athena (Dopod U1000, HTC Advantage, T-Mobile Ameo) - 8GB Unknown (most suggest Hitachi)
iriver H10 - 5GB and 6GB Seagate
Nokia N91 - 4Gb Hitachi
palmOne LifeDrive - 4GB Hitachi
Rio Carbon - Seagate ST1 5GB
Sharp Zaurus Sl-C3000
Sharp Zaurus Sl-C3100
Sharp Zaurus Sl-C3200
Sony NW-A1000 - 6GB Hitachi
TrekStor vibez - 8GB/12GB Cornice Dragon
Olympus M:robe m100 mp3 player
Navman iCN 650 - 2GB Hitachi
Advantages of Microdrives
Until 2006, Microdrives had higher capacity than CompactFlash cards.
Microdrives allow more write cycles, making them suitable for use as swapspace in embedded applications.
Microdrives might be better at handling power loss in the middle of writing. Flash storage always needs to move some old data around while writing, to ensure the flash’s finite write life is consumed equally; if there were a bug in the wear levelling algorithm it could cause data loss if the card were unplugged at the exact wrong time. Data on a magnetic hard drive is modified in place, and hard drive algorithms have many years more experience and testing over Flash.
Disadvantages of Microdrives
Inside a 1-inch Seagate drive
Seagate drive compared to a quarter
As of 2006, Microdrive’s capacity advantages were exceeded by CompactFlash cards(which are the same size and are often compatible with each other), and USB flash drives.
Being mechanical devices they are more sensitive to physical shock and temperature changes than flash memory, though in practice they are very robust and manufacturers have added several features to the more recent models to improve reliability.
A microdrive will generally not survive a 4 foot (1.2 metres) drop onto a hard surface where CF cards can be thrown off high-rise buildings and still function.[citation needed]
Newer Microdrives have a mechanism to hold the heads off the platter while the device is not in use. Early IBM models do not have this - when one gently shakes such a drive one can hear the heads click from side to side.[citation needed]
Microdrives are not as fast as the high-end CompactFlash cards; they generally operate at around 4-6 megabytes per second while high-end CF cards can operate at 45 megabytes per second. This may cause problems for photographers who shoot sequences of large images in rapid succession.
They are not designed to operate at high altitudes (over 10,000 feet), but can be safely used on most commercial…
