Fujitsu Mobile Hard Drives Selected by Magellan Driver Information Systems for Industry-leading 750NAV GPS Vehicle Navigation and Driver Information System

Business Wire, Sept 1, 1999

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 1, 1999--

Becomes a Premier Supplier of 2.5-inch Hard Drives to the

Rapidly Growing Vehicle Navigation Market

Fujitsu Computer Products of America today announced that its industry-leading line of mobile hard drives has been selected by Magellan Driver Information Systems, a subsidiary of Magellan Corporation, to provide data storage in the 750NAV(TM) GPS Vehicle Navigation and Driver Information System. With thousands of Magellan Vehicle Navigation Systems installed in vehicles across the country, along with plans to install 50,000 systems in The Hertz Corporation rental vehicles as part of its successful NeverLost(TM) program, Magellan Driver Information Systems maintains the largest fleet of vehicle navigation systems operating in the market today.

"The vehicle navigation market represents an important area of growth for our 2.5-inch mobile hard drives and we are proud to have been chosen as a premier supplier to an industry leader like Magellan," said Keith Caldwell, director mobile products, Fujitsu Computer Products of America. "We believe this announcement is an important first step in establishing our leadership in the Vehicle Navigation arena, and look forward to increasing our momentum in this area in the months to come."

According to Dennis Waid, president of storage industry analyst firm Peripheral Research, "We anticipate the compounded annual growth rate for the automotive navigational systems market to continue at a rate of 61 percent through the end of 2000. By the end of 2002, we estimate that two million 2.5-inch mobile hard drives will have been shipped for use in these systems. As an early opportunist in this emerging marketplace, Fujitsu is well-positioned to take advantage of that growth."

Magellan Driver Information Systems' 750NAV GPS navigation system allows drivers to select a destination by entering a street address, intersection, freeway entrance or exit, or even by choosing from over a half million pre-programmed destinations called Points of Interest which include hotels, ATMs, airports, hospitals, tourist attractions and many other locations. Once the route is set, 750NAV employs the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, dead-reckoning sensors and digital map-matching to locate the vehicle, then uses visual and voice prompts to guide the driver turn-by-turn to the destination. Mobile hard drives provide the optimal seeks times and transfer rates, in addition to the high shock resistance and temperature tolerance required for 750NAV Global Positioning Systems.

Fujitsu's mobile hard disk drives provide a key enabling technology for innovative new products such as the 750NAV. "As the leading provider of Navigation systems in the country, we were looking for a storage partner with a reputation we could count on," commented Mike Mouser, vice president and general manager, Magellan Driver Information Systems. "We selected Fujitsu's mobile hard drives for their outstanding performance and consistent reliability. Our customers rely on us, and we rely on Fujitsu's mobile disk drives."

Arrow Electronics, headquartered in Melville, New York and the world's largest distributor of electronic components and computer products, played a pivotal role in promoting Fujitsu hard disk drives to fulfill the unique storage-component requirements for Magellan's 750NAV Global Positioning Systems. "Our strong and established relationship with Arrow has uniquely positioned us to pursue a wide variety of mass storage markets and applications, such as mobile storage. We are working with Arrow to identify additional solutions ideal for Fujitsu hard disk drives," said Doug May, vice president sales and marketing, Fujitsu Computer Products of America.

Mobile Hard Drives: Storage Technology of Choice for Global Positioning Systems

The automotive computing environment of a global positioning system imposes stringent demands on all of its components, and the intense vibrations and extreme temperatures necessitate an extremely rugged type of data storage device. Designed for the constant wear and tear of travel, Fujitsu's 2.5-inch mobile hard drives provide the high shock resistance and temperature tolerance required for these tough conditions. Fujitsu's mobile hard drives feature a non-operating shock tolerance of 700 G, which ensures that the drives will withstand even the most rigorous treatment on the road. In addition, a high relative temperature and humidity tolerance allows for optimal performance when driving through the wide variety of weather conditions in the United States.

To store and quickly retrieve information from a complex and detailed database of locations, Global Positioning Systems also require high storage capacities and fast download and access times. Fujitsu's mobile drives offer leading areal densities, enabling them to deliver capacities traditionally seen in 3.5-inch desktop drives. Additionally, hard drive transaction times are significantly faster than those of competing technologies, such as CDR, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, and other forms of magnetic and optical storage. Further, when compared to competing technologies, Fujitsu's 2.5-inch hard drives help GPS Systems to compete in a cost-conscious consumer-oriented marketplace with the lowest cost per megabyte available.