SuperDisk Technology

The LS-120 floppy disk drive can act as the PC’s bootable A: drive (in newer systems that support

ATAPI removable devices; a few of the newest systems even support booting from USB drives) and is

fully compatible with Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows 9x/Me. Windows XP supports the

USB and ATAPI versions of the drive; check with vendors of PC Card and parallel-port versions for

support and drivers. Macintoshes can also use USB-based SuperDisk drives, so data (and the drive

itself) can be shared between PCs and Macs.

In addition to its own 120MB floppy disks, the LS-120 drive accepts standard 720KB and 1.44MB

floppy disks and actually reads and writes those disks up to three times faster than standard floppy

disk drives. By contrast, the rival Iomega Zip drives can’t use existing floppy disks.

Note:-

The SmartDisk Corporation FlashPath flash-card adapters for 3 1/2'' disk drives do not work in drives such as the LS-120

or PC Card-connected floppy drives; they are designed to work only with standard 1.44MB 3 1/2'' drives connected via

a standard floppy controller.

Having one of these high-capacity drives in a portable PC enables the use of relatively inexpensive

120MB removable disks while on the road. They are good for utility programs or databases and

spreadsheets and can be removed and secured when the portable system is not in use.

LS-120 specifications are compared to standard 1.44MB floppy disks in Table 3; the following specifications

reflect the revised versions of the LS-120 drive.


Note:-

In mid-1999, Imation redesigned the LS-120 drives to provide faster performance than the original version. Prior to the

cease in production, most models had been upgraded. However, Imation’s PC Card model continued to use the original

mechanism, as seen in Below figure.

Imation LS-120 Specifications Versus 1.44MB Floppy*

Drive Type.                    LS-120        LS-120         LS-120       LS-120       3 1/2'' Floppy

Formatted capacity        120MB       120MB        120MB      120MB      1.44MB

Model (interface)            ATA            USB            PC Card     Parallel      Floppy cable

Maximum data              1100KBps    750KBps     440KBps   750KBps   45KBps

transfer rate

Buffer size                      10KB            10KB          8KB           10KB         none

Average seek time         60ms             60ms           70ms         60ms          84ms

Disk rotational speed    1440rpm      1440rpm      720rpm     1440rpm   300rpm

Track density                  2,490tpi      2,490tpi       2,490tpi     2,490tpi      135tpi

Number of tracks           1,736x

                                       2 sides          2 sides         2 sides        2 sides        1,736x        1,736x       1,736x       80x2 sides  *Third-party LS-120 drives might vary.

The LS-120 disk has the same shape and size as a standard 1.44MB 3 1/2'' floppy disk; however, it uses

a combination of magnetic and optical technology to enable greater capacity and performance.

Named after the laser servo (LS) mechanism it employs, LS-120 technology places optical reference.

High-Capacity Removable Storage Technologies and Information:-

tracks on the disk that are read by a laser system. The optical sensor in the drive allows the read/write

head to be precisely positioned over the magnetic data tracks, enabling track densities of 2,490tpi versus

135tpi for a 1.44MB floppy disk. Unlike phase-change, magneto-optical, or CD-R/CD-RW drives,

the laser in the LS-120 drive is used strictly for positioning purposes.

The LS-120 SuperDisk also can be used in the interchangeable drive bays of many high-end notebook

computers. A pair of Panasonic digital cameras—the 1.3-megapixel PV-SD4090 and the 3.3-megapixel

PV-SD5000—use SuperDisk media to store digital photos.

Some PC manufacturers provide the option of using an LS-120 drive in their products as standard

equipment in place of the floppy drive. The 120MB floppy disks are available for around $8.50per

disk.

The LS-240 version of the SuperDisk drive connects to the IDE port or to the USB 1.1 port. It uses

240MB LS-240 media as well as the LS-120 media made for the original SuperDisk drives. LS-240

SuperDisk drives can also be used with standard 3.5-inch 1.44MB or 720KB floppy disks, and can format

1.44MB disks with a special LS-240 format which enables this media to hold 32MB of data.

LS-240 media is about $11 each in quantities.