Statacom Fits Hitachi Drives to 48K Spectrum Chassis

At the rate disk interfaces are coming out for the Spectrum you'll soon be able to fit a floppy at each corner and call it a Sinclair Electronic Car.

The latest disk supplier off the grid is Statacom Distribution (01-337 0311) with a Datafax interface for Hitachi 3in drives. Statacom says the interface is in production now, and that decent quantities should be in stock by the time of the PCW Show in three weeks.

Under an introductory offer you pay £245 plus VAT for the interface and a drive - 100K of storage, or 200K 'flippable' at the bottom of Hitachi's range. The interface itself costs £79.95 plus VAT.

That buys you the interface with disk operating system, cabling, a manual and a utilities disk. You have to find 8K in your Spectrum but the interface carries its own edge connector, so there should be no problem stacking peripherals.

Datafax has devised a semi-random access filing system, which sets its unit apart from some of the Spectrum disk offerings. The maximum number of files you can store is 39 per side, as long as none exceeds 3K. The interface isn't restricted to Hitachi 3in disks - it also operates with any 40-track 5.25" drive.