Why a New Diskette Standard?

With more than 5 billion sold worldwide, the 3.5-inch 1.44 MB computer diskette is one of the most recognizable and successful products in the computer industry. Since its introduction in 1984, it has been the undisputed standard for removable storage on the desktop.

The 3.5-inch diskette and drive are two of only a few PC components, however, that have not undergone exponential advancement over the past decade. For example, hard disk capacities of typical new PCs have grown from a mere 20 MB to 1 GB or more during the past decade. Processors have evolved from the 086 to the lightning-fast 166 MHz Pentium processors that are now in today's newest systems.

While the PC of yesterday has been transformed into the high-performance machine it is today, the 1.44 MB diskette has not evolved. Although it remains an important product for file transfer and personal storage applications, the 1.44 MB diskette is quickly becoming too limited for many functions that are important today.

Storage demands continue to skyrocket as user applications become increasingly rich, diverse and data intensive. Multimedia applications involving color, motion and sound require more storage space. The Internet offers huge amounts of downloadable data with more becoming available with each passing moment. Moreover, full hard disk backup to 1.44 MB diskettes is no longer a realistic option for most PC users.

Developed by four leading technology companies -- Compaq, MKE, 3M, and O.R. Technology (parent company of Optics Research, Inc.) -- LS-120 diskette technology provides a overdue solution to meet the challenging needs of today's PC users. Representing the first substantive evolution in diskette technology since the platform was introduced, LS-120 technology provides users with a wide range of features and improved performance while retaining the familiar, comfortable attributes of diskette technology that users have relied on for years.

LS-120 Technology -- Backed by Industry Leaders

LS-120 technology is a new read/write backward-compatible diskette platform with 80 times the capacity of the standard 1.44 MB diskette platform.

LS-120 technology is now being manufactured by three computer industry leaders:

• 3M, the world's largest supplier of branded diskettes
• Compaq Computer Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of PCs
• Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics Industries, Ltd. (MKE), the world's leading maker of CD-ROM drives, tape drives and other data storage peripheral devices.

During 1996, 3M expects that other leading OEMs will join these companies in marketing and manufacturing products based on LS-120 technology, leading the way to the establishment of LS-120 technology as a new standard for desktop removable storage.

"The 120 MB drive will have an advantage at developing into a standard because it is already supported by major computer industry leaders and is backward compatible with earlier floppy disk standards," according to Phil Devin, vice president and principal analyst, Dataquest, an industry analyst firm in San Jose, Calif.

A Giant Leap in Diskette Capacity 3M's formatted LS-120 Diskette holds 120 MB of data, meaning that users can now store a huge amount of data on a single diskette. For example, a 3M LS-120 diskette can hold any of the following:

• more than 7,000 business letters
• 40 clipped CD-ROM images
• 1,000 years of income tax return data
• a set of blueprints for a 30 story building

Backward Compatibility to 1.44 MB Diskettes

LS-120 diskette technology is the first advanced diskette technology to provide more than 100 MB of capacity while maintaining backward compatibility with today's standard 1.44 MB diskettes. As most users own considerable stockpiles of 1.44 MB diskettes, backward compatibility is of obvious importance and a key technical advantage over alternate storage options.

"Backward compatibility is a major advantage of LS-120 technology," said Robert Abraham, vice president, Freeman Associates, Inc., an industry analyst firm in Santa Barbara, Calif. "Billions of 1.44 MB diskettes have been sold worldwide and users won't have to discard that investment as they upgrade to LS-120 technology."

By not rendering users' existing diskettes obsolete, LS-120 technology preserves the tremendous investment and allows users to avoid the considerable time and expense associated with immediately transferring their current libraries of diskette data onto new media.

Operating System Support The new LS-120 diskette drive provides seamless, bootable Windows 95 and Windows NT support, enabling the user to employ familiar software commands.

"The advantage of built-in operating system support cannot be overstated," said Joe Phillips, business development manager, 3M Data Storage Products. "It allows users the ability to use the technology immediately while avoiding long-term concerns about compatibility and support."

Familiar, Comfortable, Easy to Use

With such a huge installed base, diskette technology has become familiar and comfortable for PC users at all levels. LS-120 technology won't threaten the comfort level that users have with diskettes. PC users familiar with diskette technology will be able to use LS-120 technology right away, without the learning curve often associated with other storage technologies.

The 3M brand LS-120 Diskette has a unique design that clearly differentiates it from all other diskettes, yet it retains the general shape, weight and size of the standard 3.5-inch diskette. The 3M LS-120 Diskette looks, feels and operates the same way that diskettes have for years, except it's faster and holds far more data.

Users need not be concerned about confusing a 3M LS-120 diskette with a 1.44 MB diskette. If an LS-120 diskette should accidentally be inserted into an 1.44 MB diskette drive, the drive will simply sense the diskette as "write protected" and will not write to the LS-120 diskette.

On the other hand, if an 1.44 MB diskette is inserted into an LS-120 drive, it will operate normally.

Copyright 1996 Imation. All rights reserved.