IBM Deskstar Drives Achieve Top Capacity Per 3.5-Inch Platter

SAN JOSE, Calif., October 9, 1995 . . . Implementing key storage
technologies developed in its research laboratories, IBM today introduced
two 3.5-inch Deskstar drives with capacity points of 1.2 and 1.7
gigabytes. The Deskstar drives achieve an industry-leading capacity of 850
megabytes per platter through the utilization of Magneto-Resistive (MR)
head and No-ID sector formatting technology. The drives are designed to
support advanced desktop applications requiring both high drive capacities
and fast data transfer rates, including multimedia, video conferencing and
workgroup application programs.

Available with an ATA-2 (IDE) interface, IBM's newest Deskstar drives
feature spin rates of 4500 RPM, average seek times of 12 milliseconds, and
data transfer rates of 16.6 MB/sec using PIO Mode 4 and DMA Mode 2. These
performance features make the drives ideally suited for accessing data
resident within the latest OS/2(R) and Windows 95 applications on Pentium,
PowerPC and 486-class systems. The drives' low profile offers
manufacturers a greater degree of design flexibility. An average sustained
data rate of 4.5 MB/sec enables the Deskstar drives to read and write
large, sequential files such as those created and manipulated in today's
audio/visual applications.

Leveraging proven IBM technology, the Deskstar drives provide a high level
of reliability. The combination of MR heads and No-ID sector formatting
boosts per-platter capacities and increases reliability through a
reduction in the number of moving parts required to achieve specific
capacity points. The Deskstar drives offer an estimated Mean Time Between
Failure (MTBF) rating of 350,000 power-on hours.(1) End user data is
further safeguarded through IBM's specific implementation of the
industry-standard S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting
Technology) diagnostic protocol.

"Higher capacity, performance and reliability are the watchwords in the
desktop disk drive market," commented Bill Healy, business line manager
for IBM's Storage Systems Division in San Jose. "Today's desktop-based
activities such as Internet downloading, video teleconferencing, project
collaboration, integrated fax and multimedia are boosting both capacity
and performance requirements at the desktop level. At the same time, the
cost associated with these new data types makes drive reliability more of
a critical concern than ever. IBM's latest Deskstar drives have been
engineered to meet all of these requirements, and to help our OEM
customers build leadership desktop systems that will keep them well out in
front of the technology curve."

              STORAGE INNOVATION AT WORK

Both MR head and No-ID sector formatting technologies, developed at IBM's
Almaden Research Laboratory in San Jose, California, allow the Deskstar
drives to attain their industry-leading per-platter capacity. MR heads
enable higher areal densities of stored data on each platter, while No-ID
sector formatting eliminates operational storage overhead, and frees more
disk space for end user data. In addition, embedded servo technology,
which distributes operational information evenly in relation to user data
on each platter, eliminates the need for thermal calibrations in IBM's
Deskstar drives. Thermal calibrations are frequently the source of
interrupted data flows which can result in interrupted video or audio
playback.

               PROTECTING END USER DATA

In compliance with the S.M.A.R.T. protocol endorsed by IBM and leading disk
drive manufacturers, IBM's Deskstar drives monitor themselves for error
conditions to help provide advanced warning of an impending drive failure.
This operation in turn helps provide the time necessary for the user to
perform data backup and protection routines. IBM's implementation of the
S.M.A.R.T. protocol in its Deskstar drives has been guided by the
company's experience in using proven predictive algorithms to detect
impending drive failure, in particular previous implementation of
Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA) on its higher-end Ultrastar series of
drives.

Evaluation units of IBM's Deskstar disk drives, models DJAA-31270 (1.2 GB)
and DJAA-31700 (1.7 MB) will be available by the end of the year; the
drives are planned to be available in volume in the first quarter of
1996.

IBM is the world's largest supplier of computer storage products. Its
Storage Systems Division provides a full line of storage solutions for
OEMs, for commercial and industrial distribution and for IBM computing
systems. Its offerings include disk drives; disk arrays and subsystems;
tape drives, subsystems, and automated libraries; optical libraries;
storage controllers and related storage management software.

1. Information on IBM's calculation of mean time between failures (MTBF) is
available upon request.

Editors/Reporters:

IBM news releases are available on the Internet, via the IBM Home Page at
http://www.ibm.com. The IBM Fax Information Service allows you to receive
faxed copies of prior IBM product press releases. Dial 1-800-IBM-4FAX and
enter "99" at the voice menu.
 
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