CONNER AND OTHER LEADING MANUFACTURERS AGREE ON DATA PROTECTION STANDARD
FOR ATA/IDE DISK DRIVES

Storage suppliers to support "SMART" specif cation for desktop systems

San Jose, Calif., May 17, 1995--The top five disk drive manufacturers in
the world, including Conner Peripherals, Inc. (NYSE: CNR), have agreed to
support a new set of reliability specifications that will enable systems
manufacturers to warn users if a disk drive is in danger of losing any
stored data.

The new technology, known as "Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting
Technology," or SMART, is well on the way to being approved as a standard
by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Other drive vendors
backing the standard include IBM Corp., Quantum Corp., Seagate Technology
and Western Digital.

The technology, which Compaq Computer Corp. pioneered, is designed to
protect user data and prevent unscheduled computer downtime that may be
caused by predictable degradation or fault of a disk drive. SMART, when
properly enabled by host system manufacturers, will provide users with
advance warning to take appropriate action to protect or backup data in
jeopardy. SMART will be incorporated into new ATA/IDE disk drive products
from each of the supporting manufacturers and will be available in some
products to all OEMs, VARs and integrators with Windows 95 support.

"The storage industry has made remarkable gains in increasing the
reliability of disk drives, to the point where we've reached unprecedented
levels of reliability," said Gary Marks, vice president of disk drive
marketing at Conner. "Conner is committed to continuing this tradition and
supports efforts to increase the integrity and availability of data. The
SMART specification advances that cause, especially at a time when
computers are becoming the repositories of more and more business
information."

"As the originator of the SMART specifications, which are found in the
IntelliSafe hard drives Compaq introduced in March on our new Desktop
line, we are extremely pleased to see hard drive manufacturers join
efforts to standardize this technology," said Kevin Bohren, vice president
of Compaq. "This standardization will hasten adoption of these features by
software vendors and further development of new, enhanced levels of
desktop fault prevention. Compaq's Intelligent Manageability solution,
which is fully compatible with the SMART technology, is supported by
leading network software providers and provides revolutionary desktop
management features."

Founded in 1986, Conner sells, designs and builds a comprehensive line of
information storage solutions products, including disk drives, tape
drives, storage management software and disk array storage systems, for a
wide range of computer applications. Conner had 1994 sales of $2.4
billion.

Conner Peripherals Inc
3081 Zanker Rd
San Jose, CA 95134-2128
408-456-4500,  fax 408-456-4501

 ============================================================
 From the  'New Product News'  Electronic News Service on....
 AOL (Keyword = New Products) & Delphi (GO COMPUTING PRODUCT)
 ============================================================
 This information was processed from data provided by the 
 company or author mentioned. For additional details, please 
 contact them directly at the address/phone number indicated.
 All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
 ============================================================
 All submissions for this service should be addressed to:
 BAKER ENTERPRISES,  20 Ferro Dr,  Sewell, NJ  08080  U.S.A.
 Email: RBakerPC (AOL/Delphi), rbakerpc@delphi.com (Internet)
 ============================================================
