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Technology Stocks : QUANTUM -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tech who wrote (4791)	11/10/1997 11:54:00 PM
From: William T. Katz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9124

tech, It seems from a lot of your posts that you may not know too much about the tech behind storage systems. DLT is primarily used for backup. The IBM GMR announcement is for a new head type that permits better storage density, but it would compete against MR heads, i.e. the standard desktop drive sector. NFR is something that would compete more with Iomega products since it has high capacity (20 gb) with slower access than desktop drives but cheaper per gb costs. There are big questions about GMR related to (1) volume production and (2) costs, not to mention (3) licensing. Can IBM produce enough of these drives? And if they do, why buy them if QNTM can produce cheaper products per gb? And even if GMR is so great, the licensing allows other parties to market GMR drives. QNTM is a diversified storage company. They are working on solutions at all points of the gb/$ curve. In at least two points of that curve, they have some protection because of patents/proprietary technology. In the desktop drive arena, they are helped by good contracts with major MR head producers (MKE/TDK).