Lucent Technologies and Imation Corp. Sign Joint Agreement to Develop Holographic Storage Technology - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, August 16, 1999

Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) and Imation Corp. (NYSE: IMN) Wednesday announced a joint agreement to collaborate on developing proprietary, holographic data storage technology for the enterprise storage market.

Recent research advances at Bell Labs, the research and development arm of Lucent, in both disk drive and storage materials technologies indicate that the commercialization of holographic storage is possible. Imation, a leading provider of data storage media, will work jointly with Bell Labs to develop holographic disks.

Holographic storage provides dramatic advances in both data storage density and transfer rates required by the latest Internet applications and data warehousing.

Unlike other storage methods which record only on the surface of a disk, holographic digital data storage allows recording through the entire thickness of the material, which allows for a huge increase in storage density. In addition, much higher transfer rates are achievable because the data is stored and recalled in "page format," which can be accessed one million bits at a time.

Based on the experimental advances, first generation drives would have the potential to store 125 gigabytes of user data on a removable 5.25-inch disk. This single disk capacity would be equivalent to that of 27 current 4.7 gigabyte DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) disks. The transfer rates would be around 25 times faster than that of DVD.

"With this capacity, the information in a typical large university library could be stored on about 10 holographic disks," said Alastair Glass, director of Bell Labs Photonics Research Lab. "Future generations of devices are expected to store around a terabyte on a single disk with about 150 times the transfer rates of current DVDs."

"This joint development agreement is another example of how we seek strong partners to help us commercialize Bell Labs technology beyond Lucent's core businesses," said Steve Socolof, Lucent New Ventures Group Vice President.

"Imation has an impressive record in the development of optical storage technologies and information management solutions. We look forward to a productive relationship," he said.

"We are pleased to work with Lucent Technologies - a company with a well-deserved reputation for innovation across many fields - to co-develop this exciting new technology," said Steve Ladwig, President, Imation Data Storage and Information Management. "As Imation continues to expand its broad portfolio of data storage offerings to help customers manage and protect their ever-increasing amounts of data, we expect that this collaboration will fully leverage our respective strengths."

"We will be discussing our plans for developing this technology into a prototype data storage disk and device with systems companies, and we are evaluating this technology as a possible venture," Socolof said. "We plan to push this opportunity forward as quickly as possible."

Lucent Technologies designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, business telephone systems and microelectronics components. Bell Labs is the research and development arm for the company. More information about Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., is available on its Web site at http://www.lucent.com.

Imation supplies a variety of products and services worldwide for the information and image management industry, specializing in data storage and information management, color management and imaging solutions. With the company's history of quality, reliability and innovation, "Your Business Is Safe With Imation."

In 1998, the Company reported revenues of approximately $2.0 billion. As of June 30, 1999, Imation employed approximately 4,900 people worldwide. FMI: www.imation.com.