Quantum Extends the Industry Standard by Offering Super DLTtape Family of Products - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, May 15, 2000

Quantum Corporation's DLT & Storage Systems Group (NYSE:DSS) Tuesday announced intentions to develop a family of competitively priced tape drive products based on Super DLTtape technology to address the individual storage needs of low, mid, and high-end customers in the mid-range data storage industry.

"We are sensitive to the needs of our tape drive customers and as a result are responding by creating a family of tape storage products that are tailored to fit each business level," said William Boles, vice president, marketing of Quantum's DLTtape Division. "Using the breakthrough technology of Super DLTtape and a product family strategy, we are providing our customers with a choice of highly reliable and superior performance tape drives to satisfy a full range of backup requirements."

The Super DLTtape family will be offered in three ranges. The multi-range offering of Super DLTtape technology provides capacity and transfer rates appropriate for the workgroup, mid-range, and enterprise business needs. For workgroup and departmental servers, the Super DLTtape drive will deliver a capacity of 80 GB and a transfer rate of 8 MB/sec. The mid-range market including large corporate departments and mid-size automated libraries will see a drive with a capacity of 110 GB and transfer rate of 11 MB/sec. In response to high performance enterprise needs, Quantum will also offer a Super DLTtape drive with a transfer rate of greater than 16 MB/sec. (All of the specifications stated are in native/uncompressed mode.) Super DLTtape extends Quantum's industry-leading DLTtape data storage platform, which today has an installed base of more than 1.4 million drives and over 45 million DLTtape cartridges.

"Today's customers demand a tape solution that fits their data storage requirements," commented Bob Amatruda, senior analyst for tape and removable storage at IDC. "A multi-product strategy will maintain Quantum's leadership position and ensure broad support for its Super DLTtape platform."

Like previous generations of DLTtape drives, Super DLTtape is expected to support all major systems and platforms, including UNIX, Linux, Netware, Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Mac OS. As with the current DLTtape product line, Super DLTtape drives are expected to be widely supported by all major Independent Software Vendors (ISVs).

With more than 1.4 million DLTtape drives and over 45 million DLTtape media cartridges shipped to date, DLTtape technology is the de facto standard for backing up and archiving business-critical data for mid-range servers and high-end workstations. Information on the DLTtape platform can be found at www.dlttape.com. Information about Super DLTtape can be found at www.dlttape.com/super.

Founded in 1980, Quantum Corporation (www.quantum.com) is the world's leading storage supplier in six of the seven markets it serves: desktop hard disk drives, tape drives, network attached storage (NAS) appliances, solid state systems and hard disk drives for the emerging personal video recorder (PVR) market, and DLTtape automation systems. Quantum is also a leading supplier of high-end hard disk drives. In 1999 Quantum became the first Silicon Valley company to issue tracking stock, replacing its existing common stock with the ticker symbols DSS and HDD, which track the separate performance of the company's DLT and Storage Systems and Hard Disk Drive businesses. Both stocks are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Selling its products through OEM and distribution channels worldwide, sales for the fiscal year ending March 2000 were $1.4 billion for Quantum's DLT and Storage Systems Group and $3.3 billion for Quantum's Hard Disk Drive Group. FMI: www.quantum.com.