Oakdale, Minn. -- (July 22, 1996) Industry momentum behind LS-120 diskette technology continued to build today as one of the platform's co-developers extended its LS-120 product offering, said officials at Imation Corp. (NYSE: IMN) -- the new imaging and information company spun-off by 3M on July 1.

As it launched its new Deskpro commercial personal computer line, Compaq Computer Corporation increased from two to six the number of models featuring the LS-120 diskette drive as a bootable, backward-compatible, internal standard, Compaq officials said. All six models are now available to customers in selected Compaq markets worldwide.

"We've had excellent feedback from our customers since we introduced LS-120 technology in select models of our Deskpro computers this past spring," said Jerry Meerkatz, vice president, PC Options Division, Compaq. "The extension of LS-120 technology across more Deskpro models is in response to customer demand and in step with our goal to provide our customers with the best storage solutions available."

LS-120 technology was developed by Compaq, Imation, Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics Industries, Ltd. (MKE), and OR Technology. Compaq is the world's largest supplier of personal computers. Imation, the world's leading supplier of branded diskettes, manufactures and markets the LS-120 Diskette, which holds 120 MB -- more than 80 times the capacity of the standard 1.44 MB diskette.

"Combined with recent announcements, this latest news from Compaq reinforces our belief that LS-120 technology will be the new standard for removable storage on the desktop," said Michael Sheridan, vice president of operations, Imation Data Storage Products. "We continue to work toward that goal and expect to announce more developments in the near future."

Recently, leading manufacturers Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Hitachi-Maxell, Ltd. announced that they will manufacture LS-120 drives and diskettes, respectively. MKE recently announced plans to manufacture low-profile LS-120 drives beginning in the first half of 1997, and OR Technology is now shipping its newly announced LS-120 drive, the FD-3120A, to distribution.

Headquartered in Oakdale, Minn., Imation markets more than 10,000 products in more than 60 countries. It maintains manufacturing, distribution and administrative offices across the United States and in a number of international markets. More information on LS-120 is available on the LS-120 section of our website.

Copyright 1996 Imation. All rights reserved.