| MILPITAS,
Calif., (April 16, 2003) -- DISC Inc. (Nasdaq: DCSR - news),
a manufacturer of automated solutions for enterprise storage, announced
today their plans to integrate Ultra Density Optical (UDO), the next
generation 5.25” professional optical storage technology, into
their existing Orion series storage libraries. In addition, DISC plans
to provide their current magneto-optical (MO) library customers with
an upgrade path that allows a mixed MO and UDO operating environment.
The blue laser technology used in the UDO drives enables substantially
greater data densities, resulting in dramatically higher media capacity.
With 3X increase (30GB versus 9.1GB per media cartridge), customers
will be able to purchase a highly cost-effective storage medium
that is used for storing vast amounts of information, such as static
content and reference data, or archival and permanent records which
require adherence to legal retention requirements.
Multifunction UDO drives support both Write Once (WORM) and Rewritable
media using Phase Change recording technology. The recording layer
for UDO Rewritable media can be reheated by the blue laser so that
data can be erased and rewritten, while
DISC, Inc. announces UDO compatibility in Orion Series libraries.
UDO Write Once media uses an irreversible layer structure making
it physically impossible for the drive to alter the data on the
recording surface after it has been written.
“Blue laser and phase-change technologies represent major
milestones for optical storage devices. The increase in bit density
and faster data transfer rates will translate to dramatically lower
price-per-gigabyte and substantially faster time-to-data,”
said Wolfgang Schlichting, Research Manager of Removable Storage
at IDC. “Blue laser-based devices, such as UDO drives will
enable storage library manufacturers, such as DISC to bring a whole
new generation of high-capacity, high-performance networked storage
solutions to market.”
“I’m very excited to see a new generation of technology
becoming available in the optical storage marketplace,” said
Bob Riland, President and CEO of DISC. “With the availability
of the UDO technology, DISC customers will have a viable roadmap
beyond the current MO technology. This advancement in technology
improves the value proposition of DISC from both a price and performance
perspective. Including UDO in our product offering also makes DISC
products more viable in some of the higher performance storage applications.”
The Orion series storage libraries with UDO technology that range
in capacities from 4.2 TB to 31.5 TB are scheduled to be available
in late fourth quarter of 2003. Upgrades to existing Orion systems
will begin in Q1 2004.
About DISC:
Established in 1986, DISC, Inc., a manufacturer
of automated networked storage solutions, delivers an extensive
range of products offering scalable, reliable, high-data availability
network storage for mission-critical applications. Headquartered
in Milpitas, California, DISC, Inc. has sales and local customer
support representation in over 40 countries. For a complete listing,
check our website at www.disc-storage.com or contact us in North
America at (800) 944-3472 or (408) 934-7000, and in Europe at 49
(0) 6721.964.430. DISC can also be reached at sales@disc-storage.com.
* UDO is a register trademark of Plasmon
Plc
###
Safe Harbor
This release contains forward-looking statements that
are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements about the performance,
cost, ease of integration, other advantages of the UDO technology,
availability and adoption of UDO technology by the data storage
market and our customers’ ability to benefit from our services
and technology are forward-looking statements. These statements
are made based on our current beliefs and expectations. Investors
are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risk and
uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results
predicted. Risk factors that could affect our future include business
conditions, economic conditions and growth in the data storage market,
market acceptance of our products, our ability to keep pace with
technological innovation and competitive developments, our ability
to respond to changes in the data storage market, our ability to
raise further capital which we anticipate will be required to finance
our operations, the loss of key personnel, our history of losses,
the loss of customers or distributors and increased competition
and pricing pressure. For more information about factors that could
potentially affect our financial results, please refer to our fillings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which may
be accessed through the SEC’s web site at http://www.sec.gov/.
We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that
may be made from time to time by or on behalf of DISC. |