Quantum Corporation Launches New Fireball lct15 -- the Industry's First and Quietest 15 GB Per Platter Hard Disk Drive
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Drive Balances Quiet, Reliable Operation with Range of Capacities and Features Designed to Address Real-World Needs of PC Users
MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2000-- The real-world storage needs of consumer and commercial end users have taken center stage with the Fireball lct15 -- the industry's first and quietest 15 GB per platter hard disk drive announced today by Quantum Corporation's Hard Disk Drive Group (NYSE:HDD - news).
Taking cues from its customers and end users, Quantum is once again leading the desktop hard drive market with the newest addition to its extremely successful low-cost technology (lct) line. This optimized (4400 RPM, 12ms seek) hard drive provides improved reliability and acoustics, leading capacity per disk, and a low total cost of ownership. It is this combination of features that sets the Fireball lct15 apart from the competition.
``We are very excited that Quantum has developed a low-cost storage product that allows us to continue to offer ever-increasing performance and capacity at affordable prices,' said Stephen Dukker, president and chief executive officer of eMachines.
``eMachines chose Quantum's Fireball lct for its superior acoustics and world-class quality and reliability. Partnering with Quantum represents an important milestone in our continued effort to enhance the value we provide to our customers.'
In addition to eMachines, all of the other leading PC OEMs are also qualifying the Fireball lct15 for their spring 2000 product launches. Initial shipments of the drive are scheduled to begin in March with full-volume production in April of 2000. Hewlett-Packard selected Quantum's Fireball lct15 as the exclusive drive for its newly announced desktop computing solution, the HP e-Vectra desktop computer. HP partnered with Quantum, Microsoft, Intel, and 3Com to develop the HP e-Vectra, which was officially launched by HP on February 22.
``When HP was exploring the appropriate storage solution for our new HP e-Vectra system, we chose Quantum's Fireball lct15 because of its ability to deliver highly reliable, quiet, low-cost storage as required by HP and our commercial customers,' said Eric Cador, vice president and general manager of HP's Business Desktop Division.
Quantum, the desktop drive industry leader for the past six years, has taken a fresh look at what mainstream and commercial PC users expect today from a storage solution. The Fireball lct15 is the product of this new approach to user needs.
``We have changed the rules of the game in the low-cost, mainstream category of hard disk drives,' said Roger Katz, vice president of marketing for Quantum's Desktop Storage Division. ``With the Fireball lct15, we are addressing the real needs of end users reliability, acoustics, and low cost. This drive has fewer components, consumes less power, and generates less heat, which contributes to its improved reliability. It is also the industry's quietest 15 GB hard drive. The bottom line is that the Fireball lct15 features the primary qualities that this specific market segment is looking for.'
Reliability Increased with Fewer Components, Less Heat, and Power
Consumption
Optimizing the spin speed of the Fireball lct15 serves as a catalyst for achieving significant reduction in noise output, heat generation, and power consumption, while creating virtually no impact to the applications most commonly used. All of these factors improve the reliability of the hard drive and other system components. The Fireball lct15 requires fewer components to achieve the same capacity as currently available 10 GB per disk hard disk drives, which leads to a more cost-effective storage solution.
Industry's Quietest 15 GB Hard Drive
The Fireball lct15, with Quiet Drive Technology (QDT), is the world's quietest 15 GB per platter desktop drive. QDT was pioneered through a combination of proprietary design innovations and unique drive features that enable Quantum to develop drives that emit dramatically reduced levels of noise. Optimizing the RPM speed and seek time of the Fireball lct15, coupled with QDT, yields a near silent operating drive. In active mode, the Fireball lct15 generates 31 decibels of sound power. At idle, the drive produces 28 decibels. There is a one-decibel decrease in active mode in the Fireball lct15 when compared with the Fireball lct10, which an independent acoustics expert classified as the world's quietest desktop drive. Decibel measurements increase exponentially rather than in a linear fashion, therefore a one-decibel reduction in noise represents a significantly quieter operating drive. The average PC hard drive produces 36 to 48 decibels when in use.
Real-World Performance
Quantum recently commissioned a study with an industry-leading market research firm focusing on end user computing habits in the consumer and commercial segments. The study revealed that the majority of people in these segments use three major applications on their desktop on a daily basis: e-mail, web browsers, and word processors.
When analyzing the performance of hard drives for real-world needs, Quantum's focus was on the primary applications that emerged from the end user study, as well as the time it took to open and close applications, load data, boot systems, and performance related to spreadsheet and word processing.
Quantum, as well as the leading computer OEMs, confirmed that the Fireball lct15 delivers results on par with currently available sub 7200 RPM drives. Quantum also used i-Bench, a new Ziff-Davis benchmark test, to measure the drive's performance for specific Internet applications. The test revealed that the Fireball lct15 was no different than other sub 7200 RPM drives when accessing various web sites and loading both simple text pages and complex pages with graphics.
Fireball lct15 Features
The 3.5-inch Quantum Fireball lct15 features Quantum's exclusive Shock Protection System II (SPS II), Data Protection System (DPS), and Quiet Drive Technology (QDT) to meet end user requirements for high reliability, data integrity, and extremely quiet acoustics. The drive is available in optimum capacities of 7.5 GB, 15 GB, 20.4 GB, and 30 GB. The Fireball lct15 utilizes the Ultra ATA/66 interface, a 512K buffer, and performs average seek times of 12ms.
Pricing and Availability
Estimated suggested retail pricing for the 30 GB Fireball lct15 is $259. The drives will be available in the retail channel in June. Initial OEM shipments of the drive are scheduled to begin in March and full-volume production will begin in April of 2000.
About Quantum
Founded in 1980, Quantum Corporation (www.quantum.com) is the world's leading storage supplier in five of the seven markets it serves: desktop hard disk drives, tape drives, network attached storage (NAS) appliances, solid state systems and hard disk drives for the emerging personal video recorder (PVR) market. Quantum is also the second largest supplier of mid-range tape automation systems and a leading supplier of high-end hard disk drives. In 1999 Quantum became the first Silicon Valley company to issue tracking stock, replacing its existing common stock with the ticker symbols DSS and HDD, which track the separate performance of the company's DLT and Storage Systems and Hard Disk Drive businesses. Both stocks are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Selling its products through OEM and distribution channels worldwide, sales for the fiscal year ending March 1999 were $1.3 billion for Quantum's DLT and Storage Systems Group and $3.6 billion for Quantum's Hard Disk Drive Group.
Quantum can be contacted at Quantum Corp., 500 McCarthy Blvd., Milpitas, Calif., 95035, www.quantum.com, 408 894-4000
The foregoing statements regarding new product introduction, performance, availability, price, customer acceptance, orders of new products, and the impact of the new products on Quantum and the market, are forward looking statements and actual results could vary. Factors which could affect actual results include the ability to successfully manufacture and distribute new products at sufficient volume, quality and reasonable cost, the timing of new product introductions, competition, and the significant uncertainty of market acceptance of new products.
Note to Editors: Quantum, the Quantum logo, and Fireball are trademarks of Quantum Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries.
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Contact:
Quantum Corporation
Rob Lopez, 408/894-7431
rob.lopez@quantum.com
or
The Hoffman Agency for Quantum Corporation
Elizabeth Mousourakis, 408/975-3028
emousourakis@hoffman.com |
