Drivetec Drives

Kaypro is now in the disk drive manufacturing business! We have signed a manufacturing agreement with Drivetec of San Jose that allows us to build drives which they designed. We are even allowed to build the parts that make up the drives, if we choose. The only thing we can't do is sell the drives outside the computer as independent components. The Eastman Kodak Company has a similar arrangement with Drivetec. We are currently using the drives in our Robie computer which has been sent to a beta test site for evaluation and will be shipped to dealers soon.

The idea for the new drive is based on a design originally patented by Dymec Corp. It has been fully developed by a team of experts at Drivetec headed by Herb Thompson. Frank D. Wallens of Drivetec wrote the software for programming the proms (programmable read only memories), the computer chips that control the drives.

According to Redacted Name, KAYPRO's technical expert on the Drivetec project, there are several features of this product that attracted us to it. "For example," says he "the mechanical simplicity of the drive is excellent and the positioning system for the heads centers them perfectly withi the center of the tracks on the diskette. Also, the 'Gumball' head system of the drive treats the diskettes delicately and thus makes them last longer."

This disk drive which is now a member of the KAYPRO family, contains the very latest in drive technology. Its most amazing technological advance is the 2.6 megabytes of formatted storage on a 5 1/4-inch diskette. It is so advanced, in fact, that much of the rest of the drive industry is scrambling to come out with something similar: Amlyne Corporation is making a drive similar to our Drivetec, and 3M Corporation is now developing a "stretched floppy" as another way of accomplishing Drivetec's perfect diskette centering. Some companies are even attempting to develop a 10 megabyte floppy diskette!

KAYPRO's choice of Drivetec is another industry first for us and should put us further ahead in sales. The returns will be in soon.
(CommuniKay, April 1984)

Sources reported that Drivetec was seeking an infusion of about $5 million. The company in October received $7 million in its third funding round, bringing total capitalization to $15 million.

That round had been delayed the previous summer when Kaypro Corp., Drivetec's largest customer, rescheduled deliveries. The third round was originally intended to bring $10 million. ...

Drivetec reportedly was shipping its 3.3-Mbyte floppy disk drive at the rate of 6000 units per month until Kaypro's action last July [1984] forced it to cut production. Although it resumed manufacturing in January, the company never again exceeded shipments of 1000 units per month, sources said.
(Computer Systems News, January 21, 1985)

Micro-Mini Systems Article written by Herb Thompson File:198307 Drivetec 3.3Mb Floppy.pdf