Micropolis Corporation (styled as ''MICROPΩLIS'') was a
disk drive
Disk storage (also sometimes called drive storage) is a general category of storage mechanisms where data is recorded by various electronic, magnetic, optical, or mechanical changes to a surface layer of one or more rotating disks. A disk drive is ...
company located in
Chatsworth, California
Chatsworth is a suburban neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley.
The area was home to Native Americans, some of whom left caves containing rock art. Chatsworth was explored and colonized by the Spanish be ...
and founded in 1976. Micropolis initially manufactured high capacity (for the time)
hard-sectored 5.25-inch
floppy drive
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
s and
controller
Controller may refer to:
Occupations
* Controller or financial controller, or in government accounting comptroller, a senior accounting position
* Controller, someone who performs agent handling in espionage
* Air traffic controller, a person ...
s, later manufacturing
hard drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
s using
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...
and
ESDI interfaces.
History
![Micropolis boot diskette](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Micropolis_boot_diskette.JPG)
Micropolis's first advance was to take the existing 48 tpi (tracks per inch) standard created by
Shugart Associates
Shugart Associates (later Shugart Corporation) was a computer peripheral manufacturer that dominated the floppy disk drive market in the late 1970s and is famous for introducing the -inch "Minifloppy" floppy disk drive. In 1979 it was one of the f ...
, and double both the track density and track recording density to get four times the total storage on a 5.25-inch floppy in the "MetaFloppy" series with
quad density (Drives '':1054'', '':1053'', and '':1043'') around 1980.
Micropolis pioneered
100 tpi density because of the attraction of an exact 100 tracks to the inch. "Micropolis-compatible" 5.25-inch 77-track diskette drives were also manufactured by
Tandon (TM100-3M and TM100-4M). Such drives were used in a number of computers like in a
Vector Graphic
Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display a ...
S-100 bus
The S-100 bus or Altair bus, IEEE 696-1983 ''(withdrawn)'', is an early computer bus designed in 1974 as a part of the Altair 8800. The bus was the first industry standard expansion bus for the microcomputer industry. computers, consisting of ...
computer, the
Durango F-85 and in a few
Commodore
Commodore may refer to:
Ranks
* Commodore (rank), a naval rank
** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom
** Commodore (United States)
** Commodore (Canada)
** Commodore (Finland)
** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore''
* Air commodore, a ...
disk drives (
8050,
8250,
8250LP and
SFD-1001).
Micropolis later switched to
96 tpi
Magnetic storage or magnetic recording is the storage of data on a magnetized medium. Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetisation in a magnetizable material to store data and is a form of non-volatile memory. The information is ac ...
when Shugart went to the 96 tpi standard, based on exact doubling of the
48 tpi
Magnetic storage or magnetic recording is the storage of data on a magnetized medium. Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetisation in a magnetizable material to store data and is a form of non-volatile memory. The information is ac ...
standard. This allowed for
backwards compatibility
Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especially i ...
for reading by double stepping to read 48 tpi disks.
Micropolis entered the hard disk business with an 8-inch hard drive, following
Seagate's lead (Seagate was the next company
Alan Shugart
Alan Field Shugart (September 27, 1930 – December 12, 2006) was an American engineer, entrepreneur and business executive whose career defined the modern computer disk drive industry.
Personal history
Born in Los Angeles, he graduated fro ...
founded after Shugart Associates was sold). They later followed with a 5.25-inch hard drive. Micropolis started to manufacture drives in Singapore in 1986.
Manufacturing of 3.5-inch hard disks started in 1991.
Micropolis was one of the many hard drive manufacturers in the 1980s and 1990s that went out of business, merged, or closed their hard drive divisions; as a result of capacities and demand for products increased, and profits became hard to find. While Micropolis was able to hold on longer than many of the others, it ultimately sold its hard drive business to
Singapore Technology
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
(ST) in 1996,
a subsidiary of
Temasek Holdings
Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets u ...
), who has ceased to market the brand in 1998.
After the disk business sale, Micropolis was reorganized as StreamLogic Corporation, which declared bankruptcy in 1997 amid securities fraud allegations.
StreamLogic's RAIDION line of storage subsystems survive, marketed by the RAIDION Systems division of
Peripheral Technology Group
A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer. The term ''peripheral device'' refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by th ...
. Its VIDEON
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
technology was sold to
Sumitomo Corporation
is one of the largest worldwide ''sogo shosha'' general trading companies, and is a diversified corporation. The company was incorporated in 1919 and is a member company of the Sumitomo Group.
It is listed on three Japanese stock exchanges ( ...
.
Emerging from the StreamLogic reorganization was yet another company named Hammer Storage Solutions, which was formed from the purchase of the hardware division of FWB, a small
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...
storage vendor. Its assets were sold in 2000 to
Bell Microproducts.
See also
*
Group Coded Recording (GCR)
*
Micropolis Disk Operating System (MDOS)
*
Micropolis Z80 Operating System (MZOS)
*
List of floppy disk controllers#Micropolis-FDC
References
Further reading
*
* http://www.s100computers.com/Hardware%20Folder/Vector%20Graphic/VG%20Micropolis%20FDC/VG%20Micropolis%20FDC.htm Micropolis/Vector Graphic S-100 FDC
External links
*
* (NB. An (incomplete) list of hard disk drives produced by Micropolis.)
* http://retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/d_micropolis.html
* http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/tandon_TM100.html
DigiSAFERAIDION Systems(Now defunct)
Hammer Storage division of Bell MicroproductsMarcus Bennett's incomplete Micropolis Documentation resource
{{DEFAULTSORT:Micropolis (Company)
American companies established in 1976
American companies disestablished in 1997
Technology companies based in Greater Los Angeles
Computer companies established in 1976
Computer companies disestablished in 1997
Computer storage companies
Defunct computer companies of the United States
Defunct technology companies based in California