Asian Facilities Now Capable of Shipping Up To 500,000 LS-120 Drives Per Month

"Mitsubishi's announcement is another strong indicator of growing industry and end user demand for LS-120 technology," said Ray Meifert, director, PC Markets Segment, Imation Corp. (NYSE: IMN). "It marks yet another production milestone in the effort to bring the benefits of LS-120 diskette technology to millions of users worldwide."

Imation, the imaging and information company recently spun off by 3M, manufactures and markets the 3M-brand LS-120 diskette and was a co-developer of LS-120 technology.

"Mitsubishi Electric recognizes that LS-120 is the PC industry's next-generation diskette storage solution," said Tadashi Hasegawa, manager for worldwide floppy drive manufacturing and engineering development, Mitsubishi. "Our present capability to ramp production to 500,000 units per month at the high-volume facility in Bangkok, Thailand, demonstrates our confidence that additional major OEMs will soon endorse the platform."

"High-volume LS-120 drive manufacturing by Mitsubishi Electric adds to the strong momentum behind the technology," said Phil Devin, vice president and chief analyst, Dataquest. "The presence of multiple, high-volume manufacturing sources for LS-120 drives is important to PC OEMs because volumes ensure product availability while competition encourages innovation and cost reduction."

The Mitsubishi announcement is the latest in a succession of recent developments surrounding LS-120 technology, added Imation's Meifert.

• In November 1996, Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics Industries, Ltd. (MKE), announced LS-120 drive production capacities of 500,000 per month at its facilities in Matsayama, Japan.
  
• Earlier this month, the companies behind LS-120 technology announced a multi-million dollar LS-120 technology advertising campaign. The campaign is sponsored by the companies that now manufacture and market products based on LS-120 platform, including Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ), Mitsubishi Electric Corp., OR Technology, Inc., MKE, Hitachi-Maxell, Ltd., and Imation. Advertisements are now appearing in leading business and computing publications such as Business Week, BYTE, Fortune, Information Week, Infoworld, PC Magazine and PC World.
  
• Last year, Compaq broadened its LS-120-based Deskpro models of commercial PCs. The company expects to extend LS-120 technology to additional models throughout 1997.
  
• In November, OR Technology announced a strategic alliance with Kaifa Group, one of the largest computer component manufacturing companies in China, to mass produce an ultra slim-line LS-120 drive for notebook computers in 1997 . MKE has also announced separate plans to develop low-profile LS-120 drives for notebook computers in mid-1997.
  
• Leading suppliers Phoenix Technologies, Inc., Award Software International and American Megatrends, Inc. recently announced the provision of BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) software supporting the LS-120 platform. This enables the easy integration of LS-120 drives into the new systems of virtually any PC maker.
  
• In a November announcement, Promise Technology launched the FloppyMAX ATAPI controller card, which enables most PCs to be upgraded to LS-120 technology with the installation of an LS-120 drive, such as the "a:drive" from OR Technology. These products are now available from each company's network of authorized distributors.
  

Imation Corp. supplies a variety of products and services worldwide for the information processing industry, specializing in imaging applications and information storage. Imation is the world's leading supplier of branded, removable media for data storage applications. The business units that make up Imation had 1995 revenues of $2.2 billion while part of 3M. The company employs approximately 9,400 people worldwide and is based in Oakdale, Minn.

Copyright 1996 Imation. All rights reserved.