Siemens Nixdorf and IBM Announce Negotiations to Develop and Distribute
Mass Storage Subsystems

September 18, 1995 -- PADERBORN, GERMANY AND SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION (IBM) AND SIEMENS NIXDORF
INFORMATIONSSYSTEME AG HAVE SIGNED A DOCUMENT OF UNDERSTANDING TO DEVELOP
AND DISTRIBUTE MASS STORAGE SUBSYSTEMS USING SERIAL STORAGE ARCHITECTURE
(SSA). SSA IS THE FIRST INDUSTRY STANDARD INTERFACE ON THE MARKETPLACE
THAT OFFERS HIGH-SPEED, LOW-COST SERIAL DATA TRANSFER BETWEEN MASS STORAGE
DEVICES AND COMPUTER PROCESSORS.

Combining IBM's expertise in SSA technology with Siemens Nixdorf's depth of
experience in developing storage systems, the two companies hope to
collaborate in developing and distributing a family of mass storage
subsystems for use in open, multi-vendor system environments. The new
systems will be equipped with leading host interfaces such as SCSI (Small
Computer System Interface), FCS (Fiber Channel Standard), Escon
(Enterprise Systems Connection), FIPS (Federal Information Processing
Standard) and IPI (Intelligent Peripheral Interface).

IBM and Siemens Nixdorf will discuss bringing to market in 1996 the first
products resulting from this relationship. They would distribute these
products through their established marketing channels under their own
labels.

SSA technology offers a cost-effective solution to performance problems
encountered when using conventional parallel interfaces (such as SCSI) SSA
can achieve data transmission rates four times higher than those of an
SCSI interface. Storage systems with SSA architecture also offer better
fault tolerance, data availability, connectivity and modularity than
comparable SCSI-based systems. These storage systems are especially suited
for use in an open, distributed multi- vendor system world.

The SSA standard is supported by the 38 members of the "SSA Industry
Association" formed in 1995. The aim of the Association is to ensure
market acceptance, development and standardization of SSA.

The agreement just concluded with IBM to use SSA technology represents a
further milestone in Siemens Nixdorf's strategy to offer the market for
open, distributed, multivendor applications, mass storage subsystems that
provide high performance at low cost.
 
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