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      STACKER NOTE                                         STACKER NOTE
           STAC ELECTRONICS TRIPLES SPEED LIMIT ON THE INFORMATION
                                SUPERHIGHWAY
             WAN Industry Standardizing on Stac LZS Compression
      STAC FAX  1128 (10-25-1994)
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      SAN DIEGO, Calif., September 5, 1994 - Stac Electronics
      (NASDAQ:STAC), the leading supplier of compression products for
      data storage and communications, today announced that it has won
      the endorsement of several standards bodies and individual
      companies, making Stac LZS the compression standard for wide
      area networking (WAN).
      
      "Connections on the Information Superhighway commonly depend on
      low to medium speed links -- often as low as 56 kilobits per
      second -- which makes it look more like a country road than a
      superhighway," said Gary Clow, Stac president and chief executive
      officer.  "But by using Stac
      LZS data compression, wide area network equipment manufacturers
      can triple data transfer rates."
      
      The Synchronous Data Compression Consortium (SDCC), which
      addresses issues between routers and the digital transmission
      interface recently selected the Stac algorithm as its recommended
      compression technique. One of the first tasks of the SDCC was to
      decide on a data compression standard for Data Service
      Units/Channel Service Units (DSU/CSU).  Stac LZS was selected
      from an initial group of 12 algorithms considered.
      
      In addition to the SDCC, the Internet Engineering Task Force's
      Point to Point Protocol (IETF PPP) working group has standardized
      on a way to implement Stac LZS compression in network bridges and
      routers.
      
      "In the past, data compression has been incorporated by network
      equipment manufacturers in a proprietary fashion," said Robert
      Lutz, Stac's semiconductor product manager.  "Now, the SDCC and
      IETF standards make interoperablity a reality, allowing users to
      mix and match networking equipment from complying manufacturers
      while getting the benefit of triple throughput."
      
      More than 90 percent of all router companies currently using data
      compression have selected Stac LZS, Lutz noted.  Stac LZS
      standards approved by other industry organizations include
      Quarter-Inch Cartridge Drive Standards (QIC 122) and ANSI
      (X3.241).
      
      "Standards are key to moving our industry forward smoothly," said
      SDCC organizer Mike Osborne.  "When we looked at synchronous data
      compression techniques, we found the Stac Electronics algorithm
      to offer excellent performance, a scaleable approach from
      hardware to
      software, licensing flexibility and low implementation costs."
      
      Today, more than 15 companies are using Stac's LZS software
      libraries or compression chips for WAN applications, including
      3COM, Cabletron, and Novell, which standardized on Stac's
      compression company wide.  In addition, AT&T and Racal Datacom
      will be incorporating Stac data compression into future products.
      
      "We chose Stac LZS for a combination of factors, including price,
      performance and the unique ability to compress multiple data
      streams with a single chip," said Larry J. Stephenson, vice
      president and general manager of Newport Systems Solutions, Cisco
      Systems' PC Access
      Business Unit.
      
      The Stac LZS compression algorithm is available in both silicon
      and software.  Stac's hardware offerings include the Stac 9705
      and 9706 which can compress multiple data streams at more than
      2.5 Mbytes/sec. These products are available in production
      quantities today.  Stac LZS can also be licensed as a software
      library, optimized for a variety of CPUs, including the Intel
      80x86, the Motorola 680x0 and the Intel i960.
      
      Stac LZS,  the data compression technology in Stac's award-
      winning software for increasing the storage capacity of DOS,
      Windows, OS/2 and Macintosh computers, is relied upon daily by
      millions of computer users worldwide.
      
      Stac Electronics is the leading supplier of high performance
      compression products for data storage and communications.
      Implemented in software and silicon, Stac's products are sold
      direct from the company and through retail and OEM sales
      distribution channels.
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      Copyright 1994 Stac Electronics
