Cumana has released its new range of disc drives into the popular marketplace. They look good and carry consumer packaging for the high street shelves. We consider what sort of reception they will get

Cumana are launching two product lines, the single and dual slimline disc drives with a range of different storage capacities. The slimline drives are designed to meet approval with the home user in the same way as the earlier drivers have done in schools.

Both the 40 and 60 track and double-sided 80 track drives are assembled and tested before packaging, and have a 12 month warranty. Dual slimline drives are already under development. They will be slimline drives placed side-by-side or 'piggy-back' in a single casing.

The one thing which struck me on reviewing the Cumana disc drive is how little there is to choose between disc drives. Different drives are all very similar, very often coming out of the same factory in Japan, and it is unlikely that you will buy a bad make of drive. The Cumana is nicer than a lot of the drives that I have come across.

The particular model under review is the half-height, 40 track, single drive which is actually made by TEAC. It came with a nice long data cable with a plug on the cable for a second drive. It is a matter of taste whether you like the case colour to match your BBC but clearly many people do and so Cumana conform.

All Cumana drives have a built-in power supply, particularly useful if you have an early Beeb because although Acorn dealers will upgrade the power supply and Operating System, if necessary, on fitting a disc filing system (DFS), finding an approved dealer who will supply and fit a DFS on its own can prove difficult. However, the BBC does come with a power outlet, so if you are not going to add any other power-consuming peripherals it is nice to have once less mains lead trailing around.

The manual, by Keith Davis, is very good. It is clear, accurate and well laid out as well as being nicely printed and bound. It is very difficult to write a manual to cater for all possible users, to be understood by those who don't really know what a disc drive is and to still have the detail for programmers who want to use the tricks that only discs will allow such as direct access and hidden programs. This manual falls somewhere between these two goals. Whilst being very detailed on the hardware that makes up the various drives, telling you which links to make or break on both the discs and computers PCB's, Mr. Davis then fails to go into a similar amount of detail on the software side. He does not mention the file handling differences between BASIC 1 and 2, nor does he mention using the disc from machine code.

What is interesting is the detail on switchable 80 track drives, how they work and a caution not to use an 80 track formatter in 40 track mode. The disc formatter supplied is excellent with clear prompts and is easy to use. This is very much a hardware guide telling you a lot about the kit but only a little about the software and really not how to use it. It would benefit from an alphabetical index.

The book emphasises the important of going to a good dealer with technical backup who knows both the computer and the drives. With the BBC given its various versions of BASIC, Operating Systems, PCBs and DFS's, there are many pitfalls which do not involve the drive itself but only come to light when you have the disc drive fitted. Do not expect the latest DFS Acornsoft seem to go through spates of upgrading version number but the differences are so minor that they will not affect the user. The latest I have heard of is 0.9m but anything greater than 0.90 is fine although 0.98 seems to be quite common and 0.9f is necessary for the Z80 second processor.

To sum up, the Cumana drive is beautifully made, quiet and works well. It comes from a large well-reputed manufacturer; the manual is pretty good. The only reason I could see for buying anything else is financial.

Simon Rockman