Six Companies Support Standard for Computer Data Storage Cards
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — September 15, 1993 — Wednesday, five companies — IBM Personal Computer Co., Maxtor Corp. (NASDAQ:MXTR), Seagate Technology Corp. (NASDAQ/NMS:SGAT), SunDisk Corp., and Toshiba Corp. — announced that mass storage cards developed and supplied by them will be fully compatible with each other and will comply with the PC Card ATA standard.
Microsoft Corp. also announced that its Microsoft At Work software for handheld devices will support the standard.
The standard is part of the PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) standard that was universally adopted by the 350-member association in September 1992, and which is currently being designed into most new mobile computers and personal communicating devices.
These announcements are expected to accelerate the development and sale of small mobile computers by assuring users the availability of fully compatible flash mass storage and hard disk drive cards from several alternate sources. Currently SunDisk is shipping flash mass storage cards which are fully compliant with the PC Card ATA standard. IBM and Toshiba will commence shipment of their PC CARD ATA cards, based on Toshiba's Nand EEPROM technology, in the second half of 1993.
Maxtor is currently shipping a 105 MB, 1.8-inch hard disk drive conforming to PCMCIA-ATA in a Type III (10.5 mm thickness) card. Seagate is currently shipping a Type III card containing a 1.8-inch hard disk drive meeting PCMCIA'S PC Card ATA standard during the second half of 1993.
The companies agreed to cooperate to standardize storage card features, as well as system BIOS and driver requirements, to ensure inter-operability and easy data-exchange across various computing environments, independent of which microprocessor or which operating system is employed. Application programs and utilities running under DOS, Windows, OS/2 and other disk operating systems will run on PCMCIA-ATA cards supplied by the five companies.
The PC Card ATA mass storage cards supplied by the five companies achieve ease of use, low power, high performance and reliability by incorporating the IDE (Intelligent Drive Electronics) controller on the card itself.
The use of PCMCIA's PC Card ATA for hard disk drives permits compatibility with flash mass storage cards and allows the same computer interface port to work with either type of card. This flexibility enables computer users to choose the type of storage best suited for their needs.
Paul Mugge, general manager of the IBM PC Technology Center, said: "Our storage products will be fully compliant with PC Card ATA because of the many benefits it brings to end users. PC Card ATA flash cards and hard disk cards are inter-operable and can be used on various computing platforms no matter which microprocessor or operating system is employed."
IBM is currently designing its storage products and subsystems to fully support PCMCIA's PC Card ATA standard. IBM's PC Company is designing small energy efficient desktops which fully take advantage of the small form factor of the PC Cards as well as the low power consumption of these devices. IBM's PC Company has introduced mobile computing products to support PCMCIA's PC Card ATA standard, as well as the latest PCMCIA standards for various purposes such as communication solutions.
Skip Kilsdonk, Maxtor's vice president of marketing and strategic planning, stated: "As a PCMCIA executive member, Maxtor has played a key role in the definition of PCMCIA's PC Card ATA specification. We continue to work closely with other PCMCIA vendors to ensure compatibility of our PCMCIA hard disk and flash products to this industry standard. Maxtor's 1.8-inch drives meet PCMCIA's PC Card ATA specification and are interchangeable with PCMCIA ATA flash cards that will be offered by Maxtor and other leading companies."
Bruce Baker, general manager of handheld systems at Microsoft, said: "PCMCIA card storage is a critical component of Microsoft's vision of handheld computing, as it maximizes users' ability to share information seamlessly. Accommodating the PC Card ATA standard in Microsoft's handheld systems software will help us meet this objective."
Al Shugart, chairman and chief executive officer of Seagate Technology, said: "Seagate intends to fully support interchangability between our 1.8-inch disk drives developed for the PCMCIA-ATA cards and the SunDisk PCMCIA-ATA flash cards which we have started selling through our strategic partnership with SunDisk. Seagate is very optimistic about the market potential for PCMCIA's PC Card ATA standard."
Eli Harari, president and chief executive officer of SunDisk, noted that: "SunDisk solid-state flash cards already are being used for fast, reliabile storage in new computers manufactured by IBM and Toshiba as well as Hewlett-Packard, GRiD, Tandy, NCR, NEC, EO, Casio and Fujitsu. The fact that Toshiba and IBM with their Nand EEPROM, SunDisk with its proprietary flash and Seagate and Maxtor with their 1.8-inch hard disk drives can achieve total compliance with PCMCIA's PC Card ATA standard is what will truly drive the universal acceptance of mass storage cards in mobile computers."
Masanobu Ohyama, Toshiba's vice president and director, and group executive of the semiconductor group, said: "PCMCIA's PC Card ATA standard is crucial to the widespread popularity of new, lightweight hand-held computers because it allows end users to run all MS DOS applications and utilities. The PCMCIA-ATA interface offers the simplest solution to the system integrator. There is no need for special hardware, microcode or software. Toshiba will supply its Nand EEPROM block-oriented technology in the PCMCIA PC Card ATA format."
The PCMCIA-ATA standard already has been endorsed by other major vendors of storage products. It is also supported by AT&T, Casio, Fujitsu Personal Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., NEC, Seiko Epson and Tandy.
Headquartered in Somers, N.Y., the IBM PC Company is the industry's leading vendor of personal computers. IBM introduced the first PC to use the Intel microprocessor in August 1981, and helped spawn the multibillion-dollar personal computer industry. Today, the company develops, manufactures, markets and distributes a variety of PCs — from subnotebooks to high-end servers — in more than 140 countries.
Maxtor Corp., headquartered in San Jose, Calif., develops, manufactures and markets high-performance Winchester data storage products ranging from 105 Megabytes to 1.24 gigabytes capacity in the 1.8-inch, 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch form factors. Maxtor employs approximately 8,500 people worldwide. Its stock trades over the counter under the NASDAQ symbol MXTR.
Seagate Technology is a leading supplier of data storage products to original equipment manufacturers and remarketers worldwide. The company's common stock is traded on the NASDAQ National Market System under the symbol SGAT.
SunDisk, founded in 1988, designs, manufactures and markets solid-state mass storage products using a unique system integration approach with proprietary high-density flash memory technology. SunDisk, based in Santa Clara, is privately held.
Toshiba Corp., headquartered in Tokyo, is an integrated maker of electronics products and systems, with annual sales of approximately $40 billion. In the semiconductor field, the company is a leading manufacturer in the world and operates in a wide range of memories, ASICs, microcomputers, logic ICs, bipolar ICs and discrete devices such as power transistors.
Note To Editors: AT is a trademark of International Business Machines Corp. Microsoft At Work is a trademark of Microsoft Corp.
CONTACT:
SunDisk Corp.
Bob Goligoski, 408/562-3463
or
Seagate Technology Corp.
Julie Still, 408/439-2276
or
IBM Personal Computer Co.
Mike Corrado, 914/766-1813
or
Toshiba Corp.
Annette Birkett, 714/455-2298
or
Maxtor Corp.
Andrea Mace, 408/432-4498