Iomega Corp. on Tuesday introduced its Removable Rigid Disk (RRD), a new cartridge hard disk standard that the company said it hopes will return it to the top of the removable-storage market. Due in early 2004, the 2.5-inch format will provide a capacity of 35GB. Aimed primarily at replacing tape backup drives in small business environments, the RRD units will bear a "snazzier name" when they are released, an Iomega product manager explained. Available in the first quarter of 2004 will be external USB and internal ATAPI models, while a version with a Serial ATA interface is planned for the third quarter.
Unlike Iomega's previous Peerless removable drives (and the many competing external USB and FireWire hard drives on the market), the RRD cartridge isn't a complete hard disk mechanism; rather it contains only the platter and the motor. The cartridge is about the size of a deck of cards.
On the other hand, the drive unit contains the read-write head-stack assembly, the cartridge-ejection mechanism and the drive electronics—much like Iomega's Jaz removable drive or most earlier removable formats, such as the floppy or Iomega Zip. Both RRD components (drive and cartridge) will use seals to protect components from environmental contamination, such as dust, the company said.
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