RK05 - Variants

Variants

• The RK05E was the final version of the standard-density RK05 drive. It contained many reliability enhancements compared to the earlier versions.
• An RK05F was later produced. By "fixing" the otherwise removable cartridge in place, it was able to avoid the cartridge-to-cartridge compatibility problems that limited the capacity of the ordinary RK05. As a result, it could operate at twice the normal track density, doubling the capacity of the drive to about 5MB.
• Prior to the introduction of DEC's own drives, DEC resold two drives from Diablo Data Systems (later acquired by Xerox). Known as the RK02 (very few shipped) and RK03 (Diablo Model 31), these were interface compatible with the RK05; RK03 and RK05 disks could be interchanged as well.