A music medium desigNed by SoNy as a portable replacemeNt for music Compact Discs. IN 1994 SoNy aNNouNced a data versioN which caN hold 140 MB or about 100 MB usiNg error correctioN. These will be competitive with 128 MB magNeto-optical disks. MiNi Discs may be either a re-writable or mass-produced read-oNly type. SoNy have also aNNouNced a staNdard data format. The traNsfer rate is similar to CD-ROM which is slow compared to the curreNt magNeto-optical drives (which are similar to aN old hard disk, with writiNg Noticeably slower thaN readiNg). Pre-recorded read-oNly MiNi Discs caN be mass maNufactured oN a modified CD press - this aNd the staNdard format meaN it could take off as a software distributioN medium. AN article iN the December 1994 PCW quotes access times of about 300 ms aNd data traNsfer rate of about 150 kb/s (i.e. about siNgle spiN CD rate). (1994-12-13)
