Orb Drive
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Orb Drive is a 3.5" removable hard disk drive. It was introduced by Castlewood Systems in 1999.
The Orb Drive's original capacity was 2.2 GB.
A later version of the drive, introduced in 2001, increased the capacity to 5.7 GB.
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[edit] 2.2 GB Drive Specifications
The following specifications were taken from the 2.2 GB External SCSI manual.
Performance:
- Average Seek Time: 10ms read/12 ms write
- Data Transfer Rate: 12.2 MB/s maximum
- Burst Transfer Rate: 20 MB/s maximum
- Rotation Speed: 5400 rpm
- Head: MR (Magneto-Resistive)
- CPU: 25 MIPS DSP
- Start/Stop Times: 6 sec spin-up, 10 sec read, 15 sec write, 6 sec stop
- Long Format Time: 9 Minutes
- Short Format Time: Less than one second
Reliability and Warranty:
- Reliability: Labyrinth Sealed Door with Auto Closure and Patented enclosure environmental controls
- MTBF: 300,000 hours
- Service Life: 5 Years
- Bit Error Rate: 1 in 10^12
- Disk (estimated shelf life): 20 Years
- Drive and Disk Warranty: 1 Year Limited
General Information:
- Interface: 50-pin High Density narrow
- Disk Storage capacity: 2.2 GB
- Operating System Comptability: Windows 98, 95, 3.1x, NT4.0+, MS-DOS 5.0+, OS/2 4.0, Mac OS 7.5.5+
- Power: 5V (+-5%), 1.5 amp (peak) start-up, .75 amp continuous read/write, .75 amp max seek, .2 amp standby mode
- Power Management: Via software, with idle and standby mode
- Dimensions: 6.5" x 1.5" x 5.25"
- Weight: 1.19 lb / 538.7 gms
- Write Protection: Via Software
- Acoustical Noise: Less than 42 dB
Operating Conditions:
- Temperature:
- Operating: 10 °C to 46 °C
- Storage: -40 °C to +60 °C
- Shipping: -40 °C to +60 °C
- Relative Humidity (non-condensing)
- Operating: 10% to 80%
- Non-Operating: 10% to 90%
- Vibration:
- Operational: .03 inches p-p @ 5-10 Hz, .5g p-p @ 10-300 Hz, .2g p-p @ 300-500 Hz
- Non-Operational: .04 inches p-p @ 5-10 Hz, 4g p-p @ 10-500 Hz
- Shock @ 11ms duration 1/2 Sine wave:
- Operational: 3g
- Non-operational: 80g
- Altitude:
- Operating: 10,000 ft
[edit] 5.7 GB Drive Specifications
- Capacity: 5.7 GB
- Transfer Rate: 17.35 MB/s sustained, 66 MB/s burst
- Average Seek Time: 11 ms read / 12 ms write
- Rotation Speed: 5400 rpm
- Drive Head: GMR (Giant Magneto-Resistive)
- CPU: 30 MIPS DSP
- Start/ Stop Times: 25sec start, 8sec stop including eject, average
- Operating System Compatibility: Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows NT 4.0 (SP4+), Windows 2000, Windows ME, Mac OS 8.6+
- Drive Life: 5 years
- Estimated Disk Shelf Life: 20 years
- Warranty: 1 year limited
The 5.7 GB drive can also read the 2.2 GB cartridges.
[edit] Interfaces
The Orb Drive was available in internal and external versions.
The internal version was available with IDE or SCSI interfaces.
The external version was available with Parallel, SCSI, USB, or Firewire interfaces.
[edit] CastleWood Systems
The manufacturer of the Orb Drive was Castlewood Systems. It was formed by several former employees of SyQuest Technologies. Shortly after the Orb Drive was released, SyQuest brought a lawsuit against Castlewood.
According to the 2.2 GB Orb Drive's original manual, the URL for the company's website was: www.castlewood.com. However, the site no longer references the Orb Drive.
Castlewood has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and is no longer in operation.
