Mini Disc peripheral: end of the `personal boat anchor’?
Jim Teter, President
Management Graphics, Inc.

The recent introduction of the Music Walkman and its Mini Disc by Sony can bring the pieces of the personal computer industry together at last. Personal computers are moving from being desktop personal boat anchors to laptops and notebooks–in other words, intimate computers.

Joining computers, consumers. The use of this small, high-capacity storage device, a disk that would use the same size drive as the current floppy disks, can create a critical connection between personal computers and consumer electronics, a trend that is happening already.

The Sony Mini Disc specifications, as I understand them, include a 21/2-inch plastic casing like a mini-floppy, 150-160 Mbytes unformatted, 120 Mbytes formatted, 74 minutes of music with a new encoding scheme, about the same amount of music available on music CDs now, 1.4 Mbits per second transfer rate, and a new laser head design allowing one drive to accomplish two important tasks: read CD-ROM technology disks and read and write new magneto-optical (MO) disks, which require 1/4 the energy to write as older MO technology.

Video isn’t everything. The announced and obvious advantages are low power consumption and small size, making this technology perfectly suited for portable applications. Some people at the Digital World conference last month were less excited about the product because of the fact that Mini Disc technology does not allow for real-time full-motion video and that it has less digital storage capacity than CD-ROM.

But instead of bemoaning the Mini Disc, look at it as an audio tape killer in the music world and a floppy disk killer in the computer world. The portable size of the Mini Disc coupled with the 120-Mbyte storage capacity could, and in my opinion should, mean the end of floppy disks.

Put it everywhere. I believe the Sony Mini Disc should be incorporated in every personal computer and workstation, as well as consumer devices like the Music Walkman, and some future “Digital Photo Album”-type product. All such devices should be able to read directory information off the disks, and read and write appropriately; thus, a computer disk is never inadvertently corrupted on a Music Walkman recorder.

Imagine if every Intel/Microsoft/IBM PC, every Macintosh, every Sparcstation, etc. had this drive technology standard, and if that technology was formatted in such a way that audio Mini Discs could be inserted, recognized, and played.

Imagine this
Imagine if QuickTime extensions for the Macintosh could write these Mini Discs so they could be played on any Music Walkman.

Imagine if Canon, Minolta, Nikon, could build their forthcoming digital still cameras to write these disks so that the digital photos could be read into computers.

And imagine if MIDI-compatible music machines could read and write these discs.

A personal database. Some other uses come to mind as well. For business, professional and consumer use, publication of lectures, business and personal development programs, internal corporate-specific and private audio communications could all utilize the Mini Disc. Both the mass market and the local/niche market would be served. Fax reception and storage could be accomplished with an on-the-road portable computer. For many people, one disc could be their entire personal database. Publishing digital books, manuals, and newsletters, as well as digital photo albums, on these disks will be easy. And remember, if it is digital, it can go over phone lines.

The Mini Disc could also revolutionize software distribution. Thinking traditionally, one disc could be all you need to ship PC or Macintosh software. Thinking radically, PC, Macintosh, and other platform versions of software could be put on the same disc with a common data structure for the program; that way, you could operate your product on almost any computer from the same disk.

Hoist the boat anchors. Finally, I think the notebook-size computers are the first true Personal [sic] computers. At a conference like Digital World, instead of having all those personal boat-anchor computers on the podium to run people’s demonstrations, each person could approach the lectern with notebook computers in hand, insert their Sony Mini Disc, clip them into the circuit, and make a great presentation. This would be more convenient than a slide tray or Macintosh with an operator.

This would change the world:

• In one fell swoop, the problem that plagues CD-ROM drives, that of small market penetration, would be wiped out. Mini Discs would be everywhere–a standard.
• The notebook computer would become an indispensable business tool.
• The meeting of the computer and consumer electronics industries would occur.

What about IBM? The IBM read/write optical disc is an alternative, but is it a good one? Probably not for me. I want the music connection. I want portability. I am very happy to see IBM become a player in read/write optical discs, but the 3.5-inch disc format is too large and, from what I have heard, too thick.