Aura in Bulgarian Disk deal, NEC sampling

Electronic News, Oct 5, 1992 by J. Robert Lineback

ISMANING, GERMANY -- Disk drive design house Aura Associates, Saratoga, Calif., last week inked a manufacturing agreement with a Bulgarian maker of storage units, while partner NEC revealed plans to sample an 85MB 1.8-inch Winchester designed by the U.S. firm.

Terms of the manufacturing agreement call for DZU of Bulgaria to begin producing head/disk assemblies in November for the 85MB drives to be sold worldwide by Aura. By Q293, DZU will also begin producing assemblies for higher-density 1.8-inch units scheduled to be introduced by Aura at the end of this month.

Aura--also setting up a European sales unit here--said it is negotiating with a second company in Western Europe to complete disk assemblies. The drives will be tested by the unidentified company and shipped to markets worldwide. Aura's distribution currently is limited to NEC, which has exclusive OEM rights to Aura's 42.6MB 1.8-inch Winchester design. The higher-density drives to be introduced later this month will be exclusively made for Aura in Europe, however.

The agreement with DZU is part of Aura's strategy to control costs by subcontracting labor-intensive assembly work in developing regions. DZU has a large plant, clean rooms and trained work force in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. It will provide the facility and labor while Aura will establish an automated manufacturing line, servowriters and in-line test equipment, said Bisser Dimitrov, vice president of European marketing and sales.

In addition to the agreement with Aura, DZU is negotiating manufacturing pacts with two unidentified U.S. disk makers for 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch drives, said Rafael Sarkissian, CEO. About $7 million is initially being invested by DZU to prepare its facility for the 1.8-inch head/disk assembly production, with another $15 million earmarked as working capital. The DZU plant is expected to produce more than 100,000 1.8-inch disk/head assemblies next year, said Dr. John C. Scott, chairman and founder of Aura.

Meanwhile, NEC said it will begin sample shipments in December of Aura's 85MB design. The two-platter Model D1731 initially will be aimed at captive applications, but NEC said it may offer the drive on the merchant market.

The firm already has set sample pricing at $1,120, and it expects to ramp volume production to about 30,000 units per month in March 1993 at a facility in Ibaraki Prefecture. The drive uses ICs based on NEC technology, plus thin-film read-write heads to be supplied by Read-Rite Corp. and Yamaha (EN, May 18). It weighs about 75 grams, offers an average seek time of 19 milliseconds, spins at 5,400 rpm and has four data heads.

NEC said it will also bring out the single-platter 42.6MB Aura design, but additional details were not available.