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Fujitsu Limited today announced that it has developed a new 3.5-inch magneto-optical (MO) disk drive (MCJ3230AP) with a memory capacity of 2.3GB. It is the industry's first MO product that complies with the GIGAMO 2.3GB standard jointly established with Sony.

In order to meet these demands, Fujitsu developed the new 2.3GB 3.5-inch MO disk drive by combining the land/groove*3 recording method and magnetically induced super resolution (MSR*2) technology. When using 2.3GB media, the drive carries out high-speed data transfer at a rate of up to 8.3MB per second. It is fully backward compatible with existing MO media with capacities ranging from 128MB to 1.3GB.

In addition, the new drive utilizes an ATAPI interface, which makes it easy to install in personal computers. Fujitsu plans to adopt other interfaces, such as SCSI, in the future.

OEM Sample Price : 60,000 yen in Japan (tax not included)
Availability : Sample: July 2001
Volume production: August 2001 (tentative)
Sales Target : Two million units over the next three years

[Terminology]
GIGAMO:
The 3.5-inch MO format standard for drives and media over 1GB in capacity, which was jointly developed by Fujitsu and Sony. The new 2.3GB standard was recently introduced, in addition to existing 1.3GB standard. Both 2.3GB and 1.3GB standards are compatible with the ISO/IEC MO standard.

MSR (magnetically induced super resolution):
Magneto-optical recording technology has made it possible to achieve high linear and tracking density, with minimal modifications to the conventional optical head, as well as gigabyte-level storage volume. MSR is not susceptible to optical factors affecting beam diameter during playback. It utilizes temperature distribution and magnetism to make a smaller effective beam spot than can be achieved through optical technology alone. In addition, it can read and recognize marks recorded magnetically on a sub-optical scale.

Land/groove recording:
A method in which the guiding grooves for tracking as well as the area between the guiding grooves (land area) are used for the recording space, resulting in higher density recording.