---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 8 Jul 1995 19:36:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Richard Bullington Subject: Re: A: Drive Toaster -NatiOn- wrote: > btw: if you remap to the toaster, do you have to load the bread into the > B: drive? A PROPOSAL FOR AN ORGANIC OPTICAL STORAGE SYSTEM Since the introduction of 3.5" floppy disks, no new removable data storage medium has gained mainstream acceptance and universal usage. The advent of WORMEO storage (Write Once, Read Many, Eat Once) promises to change this crumby state of affairs. In the WORMEO system, low cost is achieved by the use of standard floppy drive interface components. A series of custom ASICS that interface with an 82072 Floppy Drive Controller chip are connected to the floppy drive bus and to an array of special sensors and heating elements: -------------------------------- | Optical | | | --------------- Sensor | | Floppy Drive Bus | | |----O----| | | Cereal |-| | WORMEO ASIC | Heating | | | Port ------\ /--------| |--| Controller | Element | | | X | | | | | | | ------/ \--------| |--| |---------| | | |-| --------------- | | | | | |------------------------------- The optical sensor is capable of sensing 256 distinct levels of light and dark, and the heating element can reach temperatures of 200 degrees Celcius. To write data, standard WORMEO media is inserted into the cerial port, and the heating element chars the surface of the media to the desired shade. To read data, the optical sensor returns a value dependent on how dark the media has become. To date, hardware compatibility tests have proven the following media types: Wonder Sandwich Bread Sunshine Sandwich Bread It is recommended that bagels and english muffins not be used in the WORMEO drive due to the irregular shape and thickness of these baked goods. ENGINEERING CHALLENGES Many advances still need to be made before the WORMEO drive is a practical reality. The data density (1 byte / slice) makes the cost per megabyte prohibitive. Assuming 10 cents per slice of bread, one megabyte of data would cost $100,000. The storage space required for such a volume of data presents problems, as it would require a cubical mound of bread 76 feet on each side. (Credit goes to Moose for the cereal port idea. Copyright 1995. All rights reserved. Reproduce in electronic media only with signature line below intact.) Richard Bullington RLB's Home Page & PGP key: http://www.access.digex.net:80/~richardb