Sole Survivor of the Removable-Storage Wars Becomes EMC-ized

Tuesday, EMC Corporation, maker of Retrospect backup software and developer of many corporate-level backup, archiving, virtualization, and management products and services, announced an agreement to purchase Iomega Corporation. Iomega will become the core of EMC's new Consumer/Small Business Products Division, cementing a partnership that goes back to 2004 when Iomega began providing EMC's Retrospect software with its external disk drives. It's been a long road from Iomega's beginnings to this point. Here's how they survived the ride.

The Benoulli Era

Iomega, like many other technology startups, was the beneficiary of an idea that IBM discarded.

A quartet of IBM engineers developed a method for preventing disk crashes by using a cushion of air between the read-write heads and the media. They took the method that IBM discarded and started Iomega in 1979. The method, known as the Bernoulli effect, was the basis for Iomega's first storage product, the Alpha-10 (10MB) Bernoulli drive. Introduced in 1983, it was commonly known as the Bernoulli box for its pizza-box form factor.

The Alpha-10 used 8-inch flexible media inside of a rigid case. Later models in the the Alpha series increased capacity to 20MB, rivaling the capacity of early IBM PC-compatible hard disk drives, and providing the advantage of "infinite storage" - just buy another cartridge to grow your capacity.

The Beta series, which put the cartridge on a form factor diet to 5.25-inches and increased the capacity from the original 20MB to an eventual capacity of 230MB, was the first Iomega product available in an internal form factor.

Leading Edge, the one-time wunderkind of the IBM PC compatible business, sold its Leading Edge Model D in a special configuration known as the "Infinite Memory System," replacing the normal 20MB or 30MB half-height hard disk with a Beta 20MB drive with two cartridges. Extra 20MB cartridges sold for $49.95 each, a real bargain compared to the $250 or so price on a Seagate ST-225 20MB hard disk or similar products sold for at the time. For more about Iomega's greatest hits (and misses), read on.

COMMENTS:

5

TAGS: 

news, ibm, consumer electronics, iomega, bernoulli effect

Comments Print Email