The gap between tape and disk storage closed a little last week with the appearance of two intermediary devices.

The Ultra-drive and the Phloopy aim to give you faster access than is possible with cassette tape without involving you in the expense of disks.

The Phloopy, pictured here, is a fast tape storage system, giving you typical file access and retrieval times of three to four seconds, and it stores 100K on each cartridge. It is more reliable than many fast tape systems as it records data in parallel, one byte at a time, which gives a short tape (12 feet) and automatic error correction. Because of its speed, the system is pseudo-random, and also provides standard disk type utilities such as CAT, INFO and VERIFY. The Phloopy will be available shortly for the BBC at £143.75 including interface, VAT and P&P, and for other micros later in the year.

The Ultra-drive is the latest version of the Hobbit (Issue 5) and comes from Ikon Computer Products. It stores 200K on a micro-cassette, and, like a cassette, is a serial device - but it runs at about 20 times the speed. The Ultra-drive is now available for the Dragon, and will be on sale with improved software for other machines, including the BBC, Oric, Commodore and Tandy, within the next few months. The whole package costs £80 including software and interface cable.

But what about its software compatibility with other media? Phi-mag, maker of the Phloopy, offers a utility to copy your software from cassette to Phloopy cartridge, and looks to software manufacturers to provide their software on Phloopy cartridge.

A similar utility should also be available for the Ultra-drive.

Contact Phi-mag on 0326 76060, and Ikon on 099 421515. PCN will soon review both.