New 2.5-Inch Hard Disk Drive Offers OEMs and Industry Users Highest
Capacity in Low-Profile Unit for Notebook Computers

IBM Announces Industry Milestone: First Disk Drives to Exceed One Billion
Bits Per Square Inch

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 15, 1996 . . . IBM today introduced two 2.5-inch
disk drives, including the highest capacity low-profile drive available
for notebook computers. In addition, IBM announced a major industry
milestone: the world's first magnetic disk drive products to exceed one
billion bits of data in a square inch of disk space. A billion bits is
equivalent to 62,500 double-spaced, typewritten pages -- enough paper to
make a stack 21 feet tall, about the height of a two-story building.

The new two-disk, 12.5 mm (millimeter) Travelstar 3LP offers a choice of an
industry-leading 1.44 gigabyte (GB) or 1.08 GB capacities. The companion
Travelstar 2XP is a 2.16 GB capacity drive that leads the high-performance
market with its rugged three-disk, 17 mm design, and transfer rates
ranging from 48.9 to 74.7 Mbits/sec. Each of these new drives boasts the
industry's highest capacity per platter, which helps make them lighter
weight and higher reliability products.

IBM has won acceptance by notebook systems manufacturers who recognize in
its drives the means of offering differentiated mobile products. "We're
able to offer exceptional value to our own customers by integrating IBM's
industry leading mobile storage solutions into our cutting-edge mobile
product line," said David Altounian, director of portable marketing at
Dell Computer Corporation. "We look forward to IBM's new set of product
offerings."

Both the Travelstar 2XP and 3LP drives are among the most rugged 2.5-inch
models available and offer the capacity to support the complex
communication and database application mix required by today's mobile
users. Leveraging unprecedented areal densities of 1.3 Gb/sq. in. (1.3
billion bits/sq. inch) the drives offer end-users: greater capacity for
critical end user data; and enhanced performance through higher data
rates. A combination of technologies developed and proven by IBM,
including Magneto-Resistive (MR) heads, Partial Response/Maximum
Likelihood (PRML) Channels and No-ID sector formatting, allow for greater
areal densities and higher performance.

IBM also announced today the 3.5-inch Deskstar 3, a 5400 RPM (revolutions
per minute) performance desktop drive available at capacities of 3.24 and
2.16 GB. Both announcements follow IBM's March 6 news of an incremental
$500 million capital investment to significantly increase the company's
manufacturing volumes to meet increasing demand for IBM disk drives by
OEMs, system integrators, and distributors, for stand-alone and network
computing applications.

MOBILE STORAGE LEADERSHIP

IBM began shipping 2.5-inch drives to the OEM market in 1992 and since then
has become the world's leading supplier. "IBM has consistently leveraged
its leading edge technology into mobile products that allow its OEM
customers to bring differentiated products to market rapidly," said
Crawford Del Prete, vice president of International Data Corporation's
Storage Research Program.

TECHNOLOGY ADVANTAGE YIELDS HIGHER PERFORMANCE, RELIABILITY

IBM's newest Travelstar drives have been designed to offer full desktop
capability to notebook users, and as a result feature some of the highest
performance parameters in their class. The 2.16 GB Travelstar 2XP has a
rotational speed of 4900 RPM and an average access time of 12 milliseconds
(ms). Both the 1.08 and 1.44 GB Travelstar 3LP drives have a rotational
speed of 4000 RPM and an average access time of 13 ms. Both are ideal for
notebook applications requiring speedy access to large amounts of data,
such as integrated fax, animated graphics, Internet access and data
transfer, and multimedia. The Travelstar 2XP and 3LP drives support the
ATA-3 (PIO Mode-4 and DMA Mode-2) interface.

"Today's mobile computer users expect desktop level capability from their
systems," commented Susan Rosenberg, director of mobile storage products,
IBM Storage Systems Division in San Jose, Calif. "At IBM, we've managed to
transform leadership technology into leading products that meet that
demand. In bringing these latest hard disk drives to market, we are
utilizing existing technology platforms, so we fully anticipate a smooth,
quick manufacturing ramp."

MAXIMUM DATA PROTECTION

The Travelstar 2XP drives are designed to withstand up to 100G of operating
shock, and 300G of non-operating shock. The Travelstar 3LP is designed to
withstand up to 100G of operating shock and 500G of non-operating shock.
IBM defines drive shock resistance as the product's ability to withstand
specified shock without damage or degradation of performance, including
acoustics.

In addition, both drives support the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and
Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) diagnostic protocol, now an industry
standard for warning end users of an impending drive failure. IBM's
implementation of the S.M.A.R.T. protocol in its Travelstar drives has
been guided by the company's decade of experience in using proven
predictive algorithms to detect impending drive failure. This includes its
current implementations of Predictive Failure Analysis(PFA) on IBM's
higher-end Ultrastar drives.

MORE POWER TO THE END USER

Maximizing battery life is of particular importance to notebook
manufacturers and end-users. In response, both new Travelstar drives
feature Adaptive Battery Life Extender technology, an exclusive innovation
for IBM mobile disk drives that has been shown to reduce disk drive power
consumption by as much as 20 percent without compromising system
performance. End-users benefit by gaining longer life from their notebook
batteries.

WORLDWIDE AVAILABILITY, SERVICE AND SUPPORT

Evaluation units of IBM's Travelstar 2XP, model DCRA-22160, and Travelstar
3LP, models DMCA-21440 (1.44 GB) and DMCA-21080 (1.08 GB) are available
now for evaluation by OEM manufacturers, and in volume by June.

All IBM drives are backed by an array of OEM technical support and
assistance programs, including customer support, qualification support and
integration assistance.

IBM is the world's leading supplier of comprehensive computer storage
products that allow people to use, share, protect and manage their
information assets around the globe. Through its Storage Systems Division,
the company provides storage solutions for IBM and non-IBM systems,
offered through IBM as well as a large network of IBM Business Partners. A
selection of products, including industry-leading hard disk drives, is
offered for use by Original Equipment Manufacturers. In addition to disk
drives, IBM's storage portfolio includes disk-based arrays and subsystems;
magnetic tape drives, subsystems and automated libraries; optical
libraries; storage controllers; and storage management software.

Please Note: Questions about the content or currency of this press release
should be directed to your local IBM representative.
 
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