Bernoulli Box
Removable Media - Bernoulli Box
The Bernoulli Box (Bernoulli) was a high-capacity removable disk storage system introduced by Iomega. Released in 1983, Bernoulli was the first popular product from Iomega.
The original Bernoulli boxes consisted of 10MB cartridges containing an 8″ floppy platter. They provided a highly reliable, removable and high capacity storage medium for the time.
In the late 1980s, Iomega released 5.25” drives with capacities 20 MB, 44 MB and 90 MB. Later a MultiDisk Bernoulli was introduced capable of accepting cartridges up to 150MB, and by 1994, capacity was increased to up to 230MB.
Bernoulli disk drive spins a PET film disk at about 3000 rpm, 1 micrometer over a read-write head and bends up close to the head. Thus its technology differs from the hard disk technology in which the read/write head flies over a rigid disk.
Bernoulli interface is usually SCSI. Both internal and external versions were available. The internal versions fit into standard 5¼-inch drive bays whereas external units were available with one or two drives in a fully self-contained case connected to the host computer via external SCSI connector.
In short, Bernoulli drives were comparable with hard drives in capacity for the time. At the same time, they offered the portability of a floppy disk. Main advantage, however, was the ability to add unlimited capacity by utilizing more Bernoulli disks. These features made the product highly successful. Later models came with reduced form factor and increased capacity.
Iomega Zip drives, the immediate successor of Bernoulli Box, used the similar technology.
