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contact: Chris Romoser, Iomega Corporation,
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contact: Barry Zwarenstein, Iomega Corporation,
(858) 795-7190
For Immediate Release
Iomega Corporation Announces New 35 Gigabyte Removable Rigid Disk (RRD) Technology for High-Capacity Storage, Backup, and Archiving
SAN DIEGO,
Aug. 12, 2003 - Iomega Corporation (NYSE: IOM),
a global leader in data storage, today announced that
working prototypes of its new Iomega® Removable
Rigid Disk (RRD) technology, with an expected native
capacity of 35 gigabytes (70 gigabytes compressed) per
cartridge at product launch, are now being evaluated
by potential Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).
Based on Iomega’s development schedule and product
launch goals, server and desktop products incorporating
the RRD drive are expected to be available for shipment
in early 2004.
A Versatile
New Storage Standard
Iomega’s RRD technology is expected to provide
state-of-the-art backup for small and medium-sized businesses
and enterprise workgroups at a lower total cost of ownership
than traditional tape backup solutions. Key benefits
include a unique combination of hard-drive performance,
superior data integrity and low media cost. Other potential
uses of RRD technology range from medical imaging and
professional digital video capturing, editing and archiving
tasks to use in engineering workstations, video surveillance
systems and other high performance desktop applications
that involve managing large volumes of data.
“RRD-based products are being
designed to solve many of the problems encountered with
tape solutions, making RRD a very viable alternative
or replacement solution where tape is being used today,”
said Werner Heid, president and CEO of Iomega Corporation.
“Tape is a fragile, slow and expensive linear-access
technology. RRD technology offers robust, high-speed
data transfers with random access capability, transforming
the backup process. With Iomega RRD technology, backup
and system or file recovery tasks can be faster, easier
and less costly in terms of both labor and network downtime.”
RRD Technology
Alliances
Iomega’s RRD platform incorporates key enabling
technologies and manufacturing resources from leading
companies, including Texas Instruments, TDK and ExcelStor.
“Texas Instruments is excited
to contribute real-time digital signal processing technology
to the new Iomega RRD drive,” said Doug Rasor,
vice president of strategic marketing, TI. “DSP
solutions from TI will help the RRD drive maintain data
integrity, providing Iomega’s customers with leading-edge
reliability and performance in removable storage.”
Raymond Leung, president of SAE Magnetics
(H.K.) Ltd., a subsidiary of TDK, Iomega’s strategic
provider for development of the magnetic heads for both
RRD and Iomega’s previously announced DCT removable
storage technology, commented, “Iomega has been
recognized as an innovator in removable storage technology
and SAE has been a development partner since first supplying
magnetic heads to Iomega in 1987. With TDK’s GMR
heads enabling areal densities of 70 Gigabits per square
inch in the new RRD drive, and our advanced AMR heads
in the new DCT drive, TDK is proud to be contributing
to the next two technology milestones in Iomega’s
product history.”
Eddie Lui, president and CEO, ExcelStor Technology
Ltd., said, “The RRD drive is a technology breakthrough
on several fronts, making it an exciting new storage
product with many possibilities. ExcelStor is pleased
to be contributing to this outstanding product as the
manufacturer of the drive and cartridge.”
RRD Durability
and Versatility
The high-performance RRD cartridge is smaller than a
deck of playing cards, more durable than tape (RRD media
is rated for over one million rewrites versus a few
thousand for tape) and assures data integrity by performing
write verification at hard disk speeds. In addition,
stand-alone RRD drives and autoloaders, when available,
are expected to cost significantly less than tape drive
alternatives, including Travan40, DDS, DAT-72, VXA®,
AIT-1, DLT® and DLT VS80.
The RRD system is being designed to work with popular
backup and disaster recovery software and will appear
to the host computer as a regular drive letter. Home
and business users will also be able to use an RRD disk
as an emergency “boot and restore” disk,
or store both operating system and data on the same
disk to create a true “boot and run” computing
environment.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of an RRD drive is its
virtually unlimited storage expandability. Cost-effective
RRD cartridges will give PC users a new and practical
alternative to filling the primary system disk with
user data.
RRD Performance
Iomega RRD drives and disks are based on proven hard
disk technology, transferring data up to seven times
faster than DDS tape. With a native maximum transfer
rate of 22 MB/sec, the effective data throughput of
RRD technology approaches 44 MB/sec (with 2:1 data compression).
For example, based on average data rates, a backup of
an entire 20GB system image takes only 10 minutes –
the same operation would take over an hour with DDS
tape. Since data is instantly accessible from any location
on the cartridge, users can back up incremental changes
and copy or restore individual files in seconds.
RRD Reliability
Iomega’s patented and patent-pending RRD technology
is designed to create a “clean room” environment
for the rotating disk, giving RRD systems the robustness
of a sealed hard drive and virtually eliminating the
effects of dust contamination. The planned key features
of the RRD drive and cartridge include:
- The RRD cartridge is a rugged enclosure holding
both a 2.5 inch rigid disk and an ultra-quiet fluid
dynamic bearing motor. The motor is sealed inside
the cartridge to eliminate the spindle hole, a potential
source of dust contamination.
- The RRD drive, which fits a standard half-height
3.5 inch drive slot, contains the read/write heads
and associated drive hardware. The read/write heads
are protected from dust contamination by an advanced
airlock. When a cartridge is inserted, sophisticated
air filtration clears any airborne contamination.
- The RRD cartridge is sealed when not in use and
sealed in operation; drive and cartridge form a sealed
unit around the disk media and drive heads.
- Advanced two-stage error correction circuitry ensures
data integrity.
- Automatic internal head cleaning maintains top read/write
performance.
Pricing and
Availability
Iomega RRD drives and cartridges are expected to be
available in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2004,
with prices to be announced at product launch.
About Iomega
Iomega Corporation provides
easy-to-use, high value storage solutions to help people
protect, secure, capture and share their valuable digital
information. Iomega's award-winning storage products
include the popular Zip®
100MB, 250MB and 750MB drives, high-performance
Iomega
HDD Portable Hard Drives, Iomega
HDD Desktop Hard Drives, Iomega
Mini USB Drives, Iomega
external CD-RW drives, Iomega DVD drives and the
Iomega
Floppy USB-Powered Drive. Iomega simplifies data
protection and sharing at home and in the workplace
with Iomega
Automatic Backup software, Iomega
Sync software, HotBurn®
CD-recording software, and Active
Disk technology. For networks, Iomega
NAS servers offer capacities of 160GB to 1.4TB.
For unlimited capacity and anytime, anywhere access,
Iomega offers iStorage™ secure online storage.
Iomega also offers businesses and consumers a comprehensive
data
recovery services solution for recovering lost data
due to hardware failure, file corruption or media damage.
The Company can be reached at 1-888-4-IOMEGA (888-446-6342),
or on the Web at www.iomega.com.
Note: The statements
contained in this release regarding development, production
and distribution of the Iomega RRD technology and product,
anticipated product pricing and availability during
the first quarter of 2004, expected RRD product performance
and specifications, including capacity, cost, data integrity,
speed, robustness, durability, random access, ease of
use and all feature comparisons to tape backup solutions,
the goal to have OEMs adopt the RRD product, potential
future uses for the RRD product and all other statements
that are not purely historical, are forward looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All such forward looking
statements are based upon information available to Iomega
as of the date hereof, and Iomega disclaims any intention
or obligation to update any such forward looking statements.
Actual results could differ materially from current
expectations. Factors that could cause or contribute
to such differences include, but are not limited to,
difficulties in the completion of RRD product development
and testing, any lack of market and OEM acceptance of,
and demand for, the RRD product, any difficulties encountered
in ramping up production or other manufacturing issues,
including component availability and pricing, co-development,
production, and distribution issues, product pricing
and conformity to specifications, dependence upon third
party suppliers, quality issues, competition, intellectual
property rights and other risks and uncertainties identified
in the reports filed from time to time by Iomega with
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including
Iomega's Annual Report on Form 10 K for the year ended
December 31, 2002, and its most recent Quarterly Report
on Form 10-Q.
###
Copyright© 2003 Iomega Corporation.
All rights reserved. Iomega, Zip, Active Disk, iStorage
and HotBurn are either registered trademarks or trademarks
of Iomega Corporation in the United States and/or other
countries. Certain other product names, brand names
and company names may be trademarks or designations
of their respective owners.
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