A year ago, I asked for input on mass storage devices. I was
particulary interested in CD-R and CD-ROM which could be configured
as stand-alones or jukebox. Friday, I went to a VAR-sponsored seminar
on CD-R (CD Recorder) demonstrating primarily software indexing of CD's
but also, talked about the hardware and the latest prices. The software
was spectacular and the speed of retrieving data from a near-line
storage device was much better than I expected. The indexing software
should be available for Unix next year but I'm sure there are already
Unix (Alpha) platform recording and indexing software available
somewhere.
What I, also, learned is the dramatic price reductions and the beginning
popularity of CD-R devices. You can buy blank CD's in quantities for
$8 which holds 650 MBytes ( the media cost of a 500 CD jukebox would be
$4000 containing 250+ Gbytes). 2X Recorders are $2000. They expect to
sell 250,000 recorders this year especially since the number of MACs
and PC with CD readers has doubled already this year from last year.
Prices of jukeboxes with 1-4 reader have also dropped.
Anybody have any experiences with CD-R especially jukeboxes with Alpha?
I'll post whatever information seems useful. I believe from what I saw
that this can only get better considering the big names such as Sony
and Panasonic producing recording devices. We ourselves have been
hesitant in buying a mass-storage system for our data.
Thanks
Sherman Owens
Unix Systems Support Specialist
sherman_at_pet.wustl.edu
Wash. Univ. Sch. Med.
Dept. Radiology Div. Nuc. Med.
St. Louis, MO
Received on Mon Jul 31 1995 - 16:45:23 NZST