St. Paul, Minn. (June 20, 1995) -- 3M today announced its TR-2 and TR-3 minicartridges -- the second and third members of a family of new high capacity tape products that incorporates the company's Travan technology.

The TR-2 minicartridge, a modified QIC-3010 cartridge, provides users with 800 MB of uncompressed storage capacity (1.6 GB compressed). The TR-3 minicartridge, the third step on the Travan migration path, is a modified QIC-3020 cartridge that provides 1.6 GB of capacity (3.2 GB compressed).

The suggested list prices for TR-2 and TR-3 minicartridges are $42.15 and $43.75, respectively. The products are expected to be available in the third quarter this year through 3M's worldwide network of distributors and resellers.

The Travan platform features a unique drive/minicartridge interface that is included in a patent application filed by 3M. The Travan platform optimizes available space in a 3.5-inch form factor housing. Minor mechanical changes enable Travan drives to accept current QIC, QIC-Wide and Travan minicartridges -- a critical need for users, given the installed base of more than 200 million QIC-compatible minicartridges worldwide.

The TR-2 and TR-3 minicartridges contain 750 feet of .315 inch high-coercivity 900 oersted (Oe) gamma ferric oxide media. The TR-2 has a data density of 22,125 flux transitions per inch (ftpi), while TR-3 stands at 44,250 ftpi. The TR-2 and TR-3 minicartridge subsystems use a floppy interface with transfer rates of 125 Kb/s for the TR-2 and 250 Kb/s for the TR-3.

Like the TR-1 minicartridge, 3M's new TR-2 and TR-3 products require no changes in media formulation, and will use existing drive electronics and head technology. The TR-1 minicartridge was commercialized in May and provides users with 400 MB of uncompressed storage capacity, more than double the capacity of the industry's leading QIC-80 minicartridge.

Effective Solution to Storage Limitations
"The information explosion -- epitomized by the growth in online services and multimedia -- has created an insatiable demand for greater storage capacity and performance," said Doug Olson, director of business development, 3M Data Storage Tape Technology Division.

"With the introduction of the TR-2 and TR-3 products, users now have access to the next generation storage platform, to more than keep pace with soaring hard disk capacities," Olson said.

In addition to keeping up with hard disk capacities, Travan technology will enable the industry to better support emerging software applications like Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) on the desktop and Windows95 applications, he added.

"Travan technology should be welcome news to millions of PC users," said Bill Frank, president of Augur Visions, a market research firm in Los Altos, Calif.

"The Travan minicartridge provides the next leap forward for 3.5-inch QIC drives, doubling capacities while preserving backward compatibility," said Raymond Freeman Jr., president of Freeman Associates, Inc., a market research firm in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Future Development Efforts
Storage industry leaders like 3M, Hewlett Packard's Colorado Memory Systems Division, Conner Peripherals, Exabyte, Iomega, Rexon, AIWA, Pertec Memories and Sony will continue to support future development of Travan drive and recording formats to assure further expansion of the market for tape-based applications.

Most Travan drives offer 2:1 data compression, which doubles native capacity. Each point along the Travan migration path represents about a two-fold increase above all previous capacity points. The Travan platform is fully backward compatible with the installed base of QIC minicartridges.

3M also hopes to introduce a Travan TR-4 minicartridge with a capacity of 4 GB (uncompressed) by the end of 1995.

Data cartridge technology, invented and patented by 3M, is the world's most popular desktop tape backup technology and boasts an installed base of more than 12 million drives, with three million drives shipped in 1994 alone, demonstrating the rapid market growth of QIC technology.

3M is the world's largest manufacturer and marketer of branded minicartridges.

Travan is a trademark of 3M
Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation
QIC-Wide is a trademark of Sony

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