KODAK INTRODUCES ECONOMICAL WRITABLE CD SYSTEM

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 22--Eastman Kodak Company today announced the
introduction of a writable compact disc publishing system that promises to
make it economical for hundreds of applications to benefit from the
ability to write, store and retrieve information on CD.

The announcement was made at the Seybold Computer Publishing Conference
being held here.

An outgrowth of the technology that created the new Kodak Photo CD system,
the new Kodak Writable CD system is designed to offer commercial users a
standard, low-cost alternative to traditional methods of publishing data
CDs. The system consists of three parts:

* The Kodak PCD Writer 200, which writes and reads data to and from discs
at twice the speed of conventional CD writers. The PCD Writer 200 also
supports multi-session recording.

* The Kodak Writable CD disc, a write-once medium that can be read in
standard CD hardware devices. Kodak Writable CD discs can store between
550 megabytes and 650 megabytes of data, text, images and digital audio,
depending on the format.

* Kodak Publishing Software to drive the PCD Writer 200 from a customer's
host computer. Kodak software will be available for DOS, Windows,
Macintosh and Unix operating systems.

"We've combined an economical medium, the Kodak Writable CD disc, with the
double-speed PCD Writer 200," explained Georgia L. McCabe, worldwide
manager, Commercial CD, in Kodak's CD Imaging unit. "The result is a CD
authoring system that can publish discs for about $25 each, making it
ideal for people who have not been able to justify pressing discs
conventionally.

"Anyone looking to distribute large sets of variable information, in
quantities from one to 100, should look closely at Kodak Writable CD."

"Limitless" Applications

According to McCabe, likely customers for the Writable CD system fall into
four categories, all of which can benefit from the technology: large
companies, where the discs can be written on demand as replacements for
paper reports; low-volume publishers, who need to create small numbers of
CD copies (and for whom the conventional pressing process is not
economically attractive); "power" users at standalone PCs and
workstations, especially those who need to exchange large data files and
maintain back-up files; and reference archives, which need to store
information on a standard medium that doesn't take up much space.

"When you consider the different types of users, the number of applications
for Kodak Writable CD discs is truly staggering," McCabe noted. "For
example, it's now economical to keep maintenance manuals up to date on a
computer system, and then 'print' them to CD on demand. A real estate firm
can produce a custom disc containing specific listings for a relocating
executive. And an engineering company can archive drawings to CD to save
storage space and improve access. The possibilities are limitless."

A Kodak Writable CD Publishing system is already at work at MCI, the
telecommunications company, where billing records for large customers are
being distributed on writable CD discs.

"Hundreds of our large customers receive billing data on magnetic tape or
boxes of paper--for analysis," said John Houser, an MCI spokesman. "The
(CD-ROM) technology to put this data on disc for one-time use has been
there, but not with this economy of scale for producing the first
master."

About the System

The technology that led to development of the Kodak Writable CD system had
its origins in the Kodak Photo CD system, the world's first high-volume
writable CD application. In essence, the research that made it possible
for photographic compact discs to be produced economically in the consumer
market now has made low-volume, commercial production of data CDs viable
as well.

At the heart of the system is the PCD Writer 200, which can transfer data
at sustained rates as high as 307.2 kilobytes per second--twice as fast as
writers from other manufacturers. The writer conforms to the proposed
standard for write-once CD drives, and can write discs for playback on all
standard CD devices, including CD-ROM and CD-ROM XA drives and CD-audio
players.

Other features of the PCD Writer 200 include built-in full error
detection/correction, automatic disc write power calibration and a
standard SCSI-II interface for connection to the user's host computer. The
writer's multi-session recording capability complies fully with industry
guidelines for appendability.

"Because it grew out of a technology designed for consumer markets, the PCD
Writer 200 is designed to be extremely productive and easy to use," McCabe
noted. "This is a device that will surprise people who are used to
traditional, time-consuming methods of publishing discs."

The second element of the new system, the Kodak Writable CD disc, conforms
to industry specifications for compatibility of blank media and partially
and fully recorded discs. The disc's capacity of up to 650 megabytes means
that it is capable of holding the equivalent of 240,000 pages of ASCII
text; 550, 5 1/4-inch floppy discs; or three reels of 9-track tape.

Given that capacity and a retail price of about $25, data stored on a Kodak
Writable CD disc would cost about $.04 per megabyte, compared with $.07
for 9-track tape, $1.07 for floppy discs and $4.54 for 81/2 x 11-inch
paper.

Discs are produced using the writer and Kodak Publishing Software, running
on a PC, Macintosh or Unix workstation. The software formats the data in
conformance with the ISO 9660 file and volume structure standard. Single
session formatting software is available today for DOS and will be
available in the near future for Macintosh and Unix. Multi-session
software for these platforms will be available in the first half of 1993.

Service and Availability

The Kodak PCD Writer 200, writable media and software all are available
today from Kodak, as well as from selected value-added resellers (VARs)
and systems integrators.

In addition to selling components and systems, Kodak will provide a
prototyping service that can assist larger customers in implementing
writable CD technology for their applications.

As part of this service, the company will evaluate the customer's needs,
demonstrate conversion of data to a writable CD format and advise the
customer on how best to use the technology. Once this analysis has been
completed, Kodak can provide the customer with a turnkey system, or can
arrange to offer on- or off-site disc-writing through its Kodak Imaging
Services group.

For further information about the Kodak Writable CD system, customers may
call 1-800-242-2424, ext. 52.

Eastman Kodak Company, 343 State St, Rochester, NY 14650-0519

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