Micropolis (company)
Encyclopedia
Micropolis Corporation was a disk drive company located in Chatsworth, California. The company was founded in 1976. Micropolis initially manufactured high capacity (for the time) hard sectored 5.25 inch floppy drives
and controllers. Later manufacturing hard drives using SCSI
and ESDI
interfaces.
Micropolis's first advance was to take the existing 48 TPI (tracks per inch) standard created by Shugart Associates, and double both the track density and track recording density to get 4 times the total storage on a 5.25 inch floppy. Micropolis used 100 TPI density because of the attraction of an exact 100 tracks to the inch, but later switch to 96 TPI when Shugart also went to the 96 TPI standard, based on exact doubling of the 48 TPI standard. This allowed for backwards compatibility for reading by double stepping to read 48 TPI discs.
Micropolis entered the hard disk business with an 8" hard drive, following Seagate's lead (Seagate
was the next company Allan Shugart founded after Shugart Associates was sold). They later followed with a 5" hard drive.
This company 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 Technologies (now Temasek Holdings
), who has ceased to market the brand.
After the disk business sale, Micropolis was reorganized as StreamLogic Corporation, which declared bankruptcy in 1997 amid securities fraud allegations. http://bankrupt.com/TCR_Public/970626.MBX http://securities.stanford.edu/1004/DNA97/001.html StreamLogic's RAIDION line of storage subsystems survive, marketed by the RAIDION Systems division of Peripheral Technology
Group. Its VIDEON video on demand
technology was sold to Sumitomo Corporation
. http://bankrupt.com/TCR_Public/970630.MBX
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 storage vendor. Its assets were sold in 2000 to Bell Microproducts.
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
and controllers. Later manufacturing hard drives using SCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
and ESDI
Enhanced Small Disk Interface
Enhanced Small Disk Interface was a disk interface designed by Maxtor Corporation in the early 1980s to be a follow-on to the ST-506 interface...
interfaces.
Micropolis's first advance was to take the existing 48 TPI (tracks per inch) standard created by Shugart Associates, and double both the track density and track recording density to get 4 times the total storage on a 5.25 inch floppy. Micropolis used 100 TPI density because of the attraction of an exact 100 tracks to the inch, but later switch to 96 TPI when Shugart also went to the 96 TPI standard, based on exact doubling of the 48 TPI standard. This allowed for backwards compatibility for reading by double stepping to read 48 TPI discs.
Micropolis entered the hard disk business with an 8" hard drive, following Seagate's lead (Seagate
Seagate Technology
Seagate Technology is one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives. Incorporated in 1978 as Shugart Technology, Seagate is currently incorporated in Dublin, Ireland and has its principal executive offices in Scotts Valley, California, United States.-1970s:On November 1, 1979...
was the next company Allan Shugart founded after Shugart Associates was sold). They later followed with a 5" hard drive.
This company 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 Technologies (now Temasek Holdings
Temasek Holdings
Temasek Holdings is an investment company owned by the government of Singapore. With an international staff of 380 people, it manages a portfolio of about S$193 billion at end of March 2011, focused primarily in Asia...
), who has ceased to market the brand.
After the disk business sale, Micropolis was reorganized as StreamLogic Corporation, which declared bankruptcy in 1997 amid securities fraud allegations. http://bankrupt.com/TCR_Public/970626.MBX http://securities.stanford.edu/1004/DNA97/001.html StreamLogic's RAIDION line of storage subsystems survive, marketed by the RAIDION Systems division of Peripheral Technology
Group. Its VIDEON video on demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
technology was sold to Sumitomo Corporation
Sumitomo Corporation
Sumitomo Corporation is one of the largest worldwide trading company , and is a diversified corporation. Sumitomo is headquartered in the Harumi Island Triton Square Office Tower Y in Chūō, Tokyo, Japan...
. http://bankrupt.com/TCR_Public/970630.MBX
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 storage vendor. Its assets were sold in 2000 to Bell Microproducts.