Hard-shell floppy disk drive pioneer Iomega Corp, Roy, Utah is diversifying into tape with what it claims are the first commercially available 1 high by 3.5 form factor products based on the floppy disk interface – and the first QIC-80 tape drives able to read Irwin Magnetics-formatted tapes; the Iomega Tape250 drives are designed to interchange tapes with other QIC-80 standard hardware and are capable of working with a user’s existing QIC-80 back-up software and tapes; they come with Central Point Software Inc’s back-up software for MS-DOS and Windows – and the Windows version is optimised for use with Windows 3.1; data transfer speeds are between 500Kbps to 1Mbps and the drives will work with a user’s existing floppy controller even if two floppy drives are present; the line comprises the Tape250 Insider at $300; the Tape250 Insider Half-Height with mounting hardware for installation in standard 3.5 bay or AT-style 5.25 floppy drive bay at $350; and the Tage250 PC Powered external, host-powered QIC-80 drive with floppy controller extender board that carries both data and power to the tape drive; that costs $500.
