IBM Ultrastar 2XP Offers Superior Performance and Capacity for
Advanded-Storage Applications

SAN JOSE, Calif., October 9, 1995 . . . IBM today announced two new
capacity points for its high performance line of 3.5-inch Ultrastar 2XP
disk drives. A 9.1 GB capacity drive upgrades the company's planned 8.7 GB
version. An additional Ultrastar 2XP drive will be available at 4.5 GB
capacity. The Ultrastar 2XP drives spin at 7200 RPM and feature a media
data rate of 10.3 - 15.5 MB/sec.

The drives' combination of high capacity and superior performance creates a
storage solution ideally suited for subsystem and high-speed network
server installations, as well as for applications demanding fast access to
large amounts of data, such as large-scale imaging, multimedia and
multi-user databases. The Ultrastar 2XP drives use an embedded sector
servo technology to facilitate the high-speed data streaming required by
video-based applications. They also feature an advanced implementation of
the industry-standard S.M.A.R.T. protocol to safeguard mission critical
data. Ultrastar 2XP drives take advantage of key storage technologies such
as Magneto-Resistive (MR) heads and Partial Response Maximum Likelihood
(PRML) technology, developed by IBM to provide industry-leading
performance.

"To date, IBM has shipped more than 100 million MR heads, and over 3
million PRML-enhanced drives," commented Bill Almon, business line manager
at IBM Storage Systems Division in San Jose, California. "The leadership
areal densities that we have been able to achieve through these
technologies have enabled us to offer drives to subsystem and server
manufacturers that meet their highest performance, capacity and
reliability specifications."

                STORAGE INNOVATION AT WORK

IBM has utilized four key technologies to enhance capacity and performance
in the Ultrastar 2XP family:

- Magneto-Resistive (MR) heads make possible leadership areal
  densities of 829 Mbits/sq.in.
- PRML, (enhanced with a digital filter and now known as PRDF)
  produces lower soft error rates and enables the higher data
  throughput rates ideal for multimedia and audio-visual
  applications.
- No-ID sector formatting eliminates operational storage
  overhead and frees more disk space for end user data.
- Embedded sector servo technology, which distributes
  operational information across all drive surfaces
  instead of using a dedicated surface, eliminating the
  need for thermal calibrations in the Ultrastar 2XP.
  Thermal calibrations are frequently the source of
  interrupted data flows which can result in interrupted
  playback.

                 PROTECTING END USER DATA

In compliance with the industry-standard S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring
Analysis and Reporting Technology) protocol endorsed by IBM and leading
disk drive manufacturers, IBM's Ultrastar 2XP drives monitor key device
performance indicators and report significant changes. This helps provide
advanced warning of an impending drive failure. This advanced predictive
technology, known as Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA), has been included
on nearly three million IBM SCSI disk drives shipped to date. In addition
to monitoring usage-based changes and error rates, PFA is capable of
detecting tiny variations in head-to-disk fly height, which degrades
progressively prior to a head crash. Such sensitivity helps Ultrastar 2XP
drives provide the time necessary for data backup and protection routines.
Ultrastar 2XP drives have an estimated Mean Time Between Failure ratings
of one million power-on hours (1).

          CURRENT AND NEXT GENERATION INTERFACES

Accommodating the growing trend towards serial interfaces, Ultrastar 2XP
drives are available with an advanced Serial Storage Architecture (SSA)
interface. SSA enables more flexible and more cost effective
configurations, as well as performance rates to 80 MB/sec (20 MB/sec per
link with four links). The drives also support SCSI-3 Fast-20 (Ultra
SCSI), which offers burst data transfer rates to 20 MB/sec for narrow SCSI
or 40 MB/sec for Wide SCSI, and a variety of SCSI-2 interface models:
50-pin FAST single-ended, 68-pin Fast/Wide single-ended or Differential,
and 80-pin single ended.

Evaluation units of IBM's Ultrastar 2XP disk drive model DCHS-34550 (4.5 GB
SCSI) are available now, with evaluation units of the SSA and Ultra SCSI
models planned for availability in the first quarter of 1996. Evaluation
units of the Ultrastar 2XP model DCHS-39100 (9.1 GB SCSI) are available
now, with evaluation units of the Ultra SCSI model planned for the first
quarter of 1996.

IBM is the world's largest supplier of computer storage products. Its
Storage Systems Division provides a full line of storage solutions for
OEMs, for commercial and industrial distribution and for IBM computing
systems. Its offerings include disk drives; disk arrays and subsystems;
tape drives, subsystems and automated libraries; optical libraries;
storage controllers and related storage management software.

1. Information on IBM's calculation of mean time between failures (MTBF) is
available upon request.

Editors/Reporters:

IBM news releases are available on the Internet, via the IBM Home Page at
http://www.ibm.com. The IBM Fax Information Service allows you to receive
faxed copies of prior IBM product press releases. Dial 1-800-IBM-4FAX and
enter "99" at the voice menu. Information on IBM's calculation of mean
time between failures (MTBF) is also available upon request.
 
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