Iomega Corp is on a mission to get its Zip drives to replace floppy disk drives in the world’s personal computers, and says it’s one step closer due to new technology unveiled yesterday. The new basic input output system (BIOS) technology will enable users to boot up their PCs with Iomega’s Zip drive and removable drives from other manufacturers. The bootable internal Zip drives are expected to be available in PCs by the early 1997. Further down the line users may be able to carry their operating system and application software in removable drives in their back pocket and pop it into machines with the new BIOS support. At present the news has led to elevated share prices for Iomega; the firm’s stock price shot up 20% to $17.88 after the announcement. Zip drives and the LS-120 drives, developed by a consortia including Compaq Computer Corp, currently are not able to boot PCs, so hardware vendors haven’t rushed to offer the drives instead of traditional floppy drives. The whole exercise hinges on whether personal computer manufacturers will include the BIOS support in their products and those companies haven’t come forward yet. The BIOS technology was developed by Phoenix Technologies Ltd and American Megatrends. Roy, Utah-based Iomega said the ability for users to start their systems from Zip drives if their system crashes is one of the most significant barriers preventing its drives from replacing floppy drives.
