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Cornice Co. still open for business?
Site's been down for a while.
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RubenNYC 2007-06-21, 20:02 #16
User title: vibez junkie
Member since Jul 2006 · 971 posts · Location: North Jersey
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In reply to post ID 10055
Quote by Tom77:
I wouldn't think it would need a firmware change any more than you would need a firmware change to drop one of the 32GB flash drives into a laptop.  It looks and acts just like a drive.  The laptop or vibez wouldn't know the difference other than it would probably be faster.

The differences will be handled in the drives interface.  The pin-outs to the connecter would be identical.  The I/O commands and responces would be identical.

Have you seen the chips in/on a drive?  Thats where the firmware changes will be.

All speculation of course, but thats the only way it would be done.

Makes sense.  The same way a CF card works in a Karma.  Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I'll sure has hell be a little more careful carrying my baby around.
Sean Michael Taylor #21 (1983-2007). Thank you for giving it everything you had. Rest In Peace.
ericks37 2007-06-22, 11:50 #17
Member since Jan 2007 · 25 posts · Location: SE MI
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The information I would like to have is what type of interface Cornice used; Seagate also makes 1" hard drives of the exact same dimensions as the Cornice drive (40 x 30 x 0.5 mm).

Seagate link:  http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_st1_3.pdf

source for Cornice drive dimensions:  http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/news/792

Searching around for info on 1" hard drives, it seems like they were big news in 03-04 when they were first announced.  It makes me wonder if Trekstor basically bought an entire Rio design from Sigmatel and just designed the shell. It seems like in the past 6 months higher capacity flash storage has gotten cheap enough to have considered for the vibez; but if Trekstor already had a ready design, they brought it to market rather than change it to flash memory.
jaw2ek 2007-06-24, 20:03 #18
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Quote by ericks37 on 2007-06-22, 11:50:
The information I would like to have is what type of interface Cornice used; Seagate also makes 1" hard drives of the exact same dimensions as the Cornice drive (40 x 30 x 0.5 mm).

See this old post from UKRE (former Rio employee)
Linky

He says that all the newer 1" drives should work in place of the cornice.
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peter 2007-06-25, 08:31 #19
User title: Former Rio Developer
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Quote by jaw2ek:
See this old post from UKRE (former Rio employee)
Linky

He says that all the newer 1" drives should work in place of the cornice.
This turns out to be not quite true. The Cornice drives are special, in that they will run at 3.0V, not 3.3V. Trekstor took advantage of that 10% leeway in order to reach their battery-life target. AIUI the hardware is capable of delivering 3.3V instead, which would allow compatibility with the Seagate drives, but new firmware would be needed to program the 3.3V value.

Peter
jaw2ek 2007-06-25, 09:41 #20
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Was hoping to get Vibez for father's day.  I didn't.  But I'm starting to feel relieved, I think.

Sorry guys, but I'm seriously starting to wonder what I'm doing here.
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Tom77 2007-06-25, 11:58 #21
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In reply to post #19
Quote by peter:
Quote by jaw2ek:
See this old post from UKRE (former Rio employee)
Linky

He says that all the newer 1" drives should work in place of the cornice.
This turns out to be not quite true. The Cornice drives are special, in that they will run at 3.0V, not 3.3V. Trekstor took advantage of that 10% leeway in order to reach their battery-life target. AIUI the hardware is capable of delivering 3.3V instead, which would allow compatibility with the Seagate drives, but new firmware would be needed to program the 3.3V value.

Peter


Well, I'll be darned...  I didn't figure on needing to change the voltage supplied to the drive.  Now I'm not so confident that substituting a flash drive could be done without new firmware too.  And obviously it would make more sense to go with these Seagate drives for now since I'm sure they would be less expensive.  I guess your fears were well founded RubenNYC.
ericks37 2007-06-26, 07:36 #22
Member since Jan 2007 · 25 posts · Location: SE MI
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FWIW, SD cards could be small enough - 24 x 32 x 2.1 mm (if a little thick), and can be used with voltages ranging from 2.7-3.6.  Interfacing would be the big problem.
ericks37 2007-06-27, 11:23 #23
Member since Jan 2007 · 25 posts · Location: SE MI
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Even more FWIW, Sandisk just released an 8gb micro sd card:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/even-higher-capacity/sandisk-cr…

I don't know the voltage requirements, but I assume they would be similiar to standard sd cards, as the micro sd cards come with a standard sd type adapter.
polandro 2007-07-17, 00:46 #24
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Kept meaning to post this:


Dear Sudi (export@trekstor.de)

How are you? You will remember that we spoke just now on the telephone. Here is the information I said I would send.
The web pages below all say the same thing. That is, that Cornice Inc, who make the 2.5cm hard drives used inside the Vibez are stopping production of hard drives.

http://cbs4denver.com/business/local_story_046121520.html

http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=14635

http://www.bcbr.com/article.asp?id=85228

The corniceco.com website is down and emails to that domain are not getting through.
I am worried that if I buy a Vibez there will be no replacement drives if mine is faulty.
Please let me know what the situation is.

regards,

etc.

DEar 'polandro',

I checked with production, at the end of the year if the HDD not available we will produce with Flash ,

So don’t worry and buy them

 


Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Best regards,
 
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