Quantum introduces two high-capacity drive families with MR heads and advanced read channels; technological strength is the foundation for new levels of performance, reliability and disk capacity for 3.5-inch drives

Business Wire, April 17, 1995

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 1995--Quantum Corporation (NMS:QNTM) today announced the Quantum Empire(TM) II (5,400 RPM) and Quantum Atlas(TM) II (7,200 RPM) 3.5-inch drive families.

Both families include 10-disk, 9.1 gigabyte (GB) drives and one-inch-high 4.3GB and 2.1GB drives. These drives incorporate advanced technologies required to meet the expanding storage needs of disk-intensive applications, including those which are fueling the information revolution.

The Quantum Empire II series, designed for the midrange market, combines the areal density and performance benefits of a Partial Response Maximum Likelihood (PRML) read channel and magnetoresistive (MR) heads. Quantum is the first independent drive manufacturer to combine both new technologies into a single drive design.

The Quantum Atlas II series for high-end systems takes full advantage of the company's extensive ASIC and firmware design capabilities to provide industry-leading random and sequential performance. The Quantum Atlas II drives incorporate MR heads and the industry's highest performance interfaces: Ultra SCSI and the new Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) interface.

"Since last October when Quantum acquired Digital Equipment Corporation's storage business, we have focused on leveraging the technological strengths and design capabilities of our two drive development centers to provide the highest levels of drive performance and reliability. With this product announcement, the strength of our combined technology portfolio and our ability to leverage cross-site technologies is evident," said Robert K. Maeser, president of Quantum's High Capacity Storage Group. "The Quantum Atlas II and Quantum Empire II drives will allow us to build upon the success we have achieved with current OEM and distribution customers, open doors to new high-capacity customers, and will enable Quantum to strengthen its leadership position in the high-end market."

Technology provides performance matched to the market needs

The technology-rich Quantum Empire II and Quantum Atlas II drives match performance to the requirements of their respective target segments within the high-capacity, high-performance marketplace. The Quantum Empire II drives provide the optimum balance of performance and cost for the cost-sensitive mid-range market that include high-end PCs, desktop workstations, PC servers and low-end disk arrays. The company's third-generation PRML read channel provides fast internal data rates of 90 megabits per second (Mbit/sec.). The single-chip PRML channel draws less power and has a lower cost structure than Quantum's previous two-chip implementations.

The Quantum Atlas II drives deliver leading-edge performance and reliability for the mission-critical data managed by high-end servers (video, database, super), high-end RAID subsystems, technical workstations and other multi-user systems. The drives offer the lowest seek times in the industry -- less than 7.9 milliseconds (ms) -- and one of the fastest read channels operating at 110 Mbit/sec. By executing a number of functions in hardware rather than firmware, Quantum's patented ASABET(TM) chipset reduces command overhead and improves overall performance. -0-