Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Maxtor (MXTR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SteveG who wrote (177)	3/10/1999 1:29:00 AM
From: vinh pham	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 467

March 09, 1999 15:22 Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 5120 High-Performance Desktop Products Begin Volume Shipments New Drive Achieves the Industry's Highest 7,200 RPM Areal Density MILPITAS, Calif., March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Maxtor(R) Corp. (Nasdaq: MXTR) today announced the DiamondMax(TM) Plus 5120 series of hard disk drives, the latest addition to the award-winning 7,200 RPM DiamondMax Plus series of drives. At 5.1GB of storage capacity per disk, the DiamondMax Plus 5120 provides the highest areal density in the industry for 7,200 RPM drives. The new drive, which utilizes giant magneto-resistive (GMR) heads, is in volume production at Maxtor's Singapore plant and will begin volume shipping this month. "With this drive, Maxtor has established areal density leadership in the high-performance desktop marketplace," said Mike Cannon, Maxtor's president and CEO. "Our ability to consistently deliver standard-setting new drives to our customers is in part a result of our expertise in integrating leadership technologies and working with our supply base on those critical components. The DiamondMax Plus 5120 is Maxtor's first drive using GMR heads, and that transition is going well. These 5.1 GB per disk products are ramping smoothly in our Singapore manufacturing facility, attesting to the strength and flexibility of our engineering and manufacturing operation." According to Bill Roach, Maxtor's senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, these new 7,200 RPM DiamondMax Plus drives continue the leadership Maxtor has demonstrated over the past 18 months in the desktop hard disk drive marketplace. "With both our 5,400 RPM and 7,200 RPM products, we have consistently led the industry in shipping new generations of products in volume, while delivering the superior quality required by demanding OEM and distribution customers," said Roach. "Our new 7,200 RPM DiamondMax Plus 5120 drive sets a new standard for the high performance desktop market, delivering superior performance and quality along with our leadership technology." The DiamondMax Plus 5120 offers capacities up to 20.4 GB (5,120 megabytes per disk), UltraDMA compatibility and an average seek time of 9.0 ms. This new family shares a number of features with its predecessor, the DiamondMax Plus 2500, including a digital signal processor (DSP)-based electronics architecture and partial response maximum likelihood (PRML) read channel technology. Combined, these technologies result in a higher-capacity, higher-performance drive. Digital Video Ready The DiamondMax Plus 5120 is Digital Video Ready, providing full support for continuous data rates and response times required for the DV-format and making it ideal for audio/video, graphics and other data-intensive applications. Enhanced Data Integrity and Reliability This drive includes the introduction of Maxtor's exclusive ShockBlock(TM) head disk assembly (HDA). ShockBlock features rugged mechanics and shock resistant heads to provide added protection to the drive's head disk mechanics. Additionally, the DiamondMax Plus 5120 features the second generation of Maxtor's MaxSafe(TM) System for automatically providing protection against potential media errors. Enhancements to Maxtor's MaxSafe technology include a new error correction code (ECC) which offers 91% more ECC protection, and a new write detection feature which detects and corrects potential errors while data is being written. Both the MaxSafe System and ShockBlock HDA are continuously operational and do not adversely affect drive performance or require the user to perform any configuration or system modifications. Maxtor is the only drive vendor to combine both advanced shock protection and media scan features to provide the highest levels of data reliability available. Features and Specifications Initial shipments of the DiamondMax Plus 5120 drives feature UltraDMA 33 compatibility. Once UltraDMA chip sets are available at the system level, the DiamondMax Plus 5120 drive will feature advanced UltraDMA 66 interface technology. UltraDMA 66-compatible DiamondMax Plus 5120 drives will carry a "U" in the model number. UltraDMA 66 improves throughput speeds by doubling (from UltraDMA 33) the data transfer rate to/from the interface to 66 MB per second. UltraDMA 66 also improves data integrity by performing cyclic redundancy checks to detect transfer errors between the system and the hard drive. The DiamondMax Plus 5120 incorporates some of the most advanced disk drive features and performance specifications available today, including: -- 9.0 ms average seek time; -- 7,200 RPM spindle speed; -- 512 KB cache buffer; -- Giant magneto-resistive heads for higher areal density; -- UltraDMA/ PIO Mode 4/ DMA Mode 2 compatibility; -- PRML read channel technology; -- MaxSafe System; -- New ShockBlock mechanics; -- DSP-based electronics architecture; -- Custom on-the-fly Error Correction Code logic, capable of correcting multiple error bursts without performance loss; -- Low power consumption and ATA power saving commands that support EPA Energy Star "Green PC" standards; -- Minimum start/stop cycle rating of 50,000; -- Three-year warranty. The DiamondMax Legacy Maxtor's DiamondMax series of drives has been extremely well received since its introduction in late 1996. The DiamondMax series has received numerous awards and recommendations from the industry's leading publications, including BYTE Magazine, Computer Reseller News, PC Computing, PC World, VARBusiness, Windows Sources and Window Magazine. Pricing and Availability Estimated retail pricing for the DiamondMax Plus 5120 20.4 GB drive is $429. Maxtor's retail-packaged drives contain all the necessary equipment for fast and easy installation, including hard drive interface cables, illustrated installation guide and MaxBlast(TM) Plus, Maxtor's exclusive installation software. Like all Maxtor products, DiamondMax Plus drives are backed by Maxtor's No Quibble(R) Service, which includes two 24-hour automated services: MaxInfo(TM) automated technical assistance system, and MaxFax(R) automatic fax-back service. Additionally, technical assistance is available via E-mail on the Internet, and live telephone assistance is available Monday through Friday. About Maxtor Maxtor Corp. (Nasdaq: MXTR) is a leading supplier of hard disk drives for desktop computer systems. The Company is the fastest growing supplier of hard disk drives for the desktop personal computer market, more than doubling its market share over the past 1 1/2 years. Maxtor has built its leadership position by consistently leading the industry in bringing new products to market, while delivering the highest levels of quality and customer support. The Company's current products include the 5400 RPM DiamondMax(TM) 4320 and DiamondMax 3400 families and the 7200 RPM DiamondMax Plus 2500 series of drives. More information about Maxtor and Maxtor products can be found at maxtor.com and the Company can be reached toll-free at 800-2-MAXTOR

To: SteveG who wrote (177)	4/13/1999 3:53:00 AM
From: SteveG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 467

ML on 4/12: Investment Highlights: · We think positive customer feedback supports our positive view on the company and its ability to profitably gain market share. · The shares are trading at under 8X our 1999 EPS estimate and at a steep discount to its comparables. We think the weakness in the shares presents a unique buying opportunity and reiterate our intermediate term Buy rating. Fundamental Highlights: · We spoke with Phil Willson, Materials Manager of Mass Storage at HP, about their selection of Maxtor and the industry, which supported our positive view of the company. · HP said it qualified Maxtor due to its focus, ability to execute, and lean overhead structure. We think HP will qualify Maxtor's 7,200 rpm DiamondMax 5120 with GMR. · HP said disk drive pricing remains very aggressive, but that channel inventories of both PCs and disk drives are low. We are hearing that demand rebounded in March. · Dell awarded Maxtor its Gold award, its second highest, in its annual Supplier Excellence Awards last week. Dell cited Maxtor's understanding of its direct model. We spoke with Phil Willson, Materials Manager of Mass Storage at HP, about their selection of Maxtor, which supported our positive view of the company. HP said it qualified Maxtor due to its focus, ability to execute, and lean overhead structure. We think Maxtor's expense structure is best in class and has allowed the company to price competitively while growing in a profitable fashion. HP also said Maxtor met the company's highly selective quality requirements. We view HP as a significant customer win, supporting our view that Maxtor is taking share. IDC estimates that HP is the fourth largest PC vendor with a 6% worldwide market share in 4Q. Recall that HP qualified Maxtor's 5,400 rpm DiamondMax 4320 (code-named Quasar) last December for its Vectra corporate offering and began taking shipments in 1Q. We think Maxtor is augmenting HP's existing capacity, but could potentially displace other vendors over time, notably Quantum. HP also sources from Western Digital for its smaller consumer offerings. We think Maxtor's shipments to HP are ramping in a conservative manner, as expected, and could grow to 5% of sales or nearly $150 million next year. We think Maxtor's relationship with HP could expand to include additional drives. We think HP is looking to qualify Maxtor's 7,200 rpm DiamondMax 5120 with GMR (code-named Nova) and could qualify its DiamondMax 4320 for its Brio offering to small and medium business and its. HP's procurement strategy appears to be relationship oriented seeking to source product families from key strategic vendors. Maxtor confirmed that Dell and IBM have already qualified its DiamondMax 5120 with GMR and are taking shipments. HP said disk drive pricing remains very aggressive, but that channel inventories of both PCs and disk drives are low. Mr. Wilson said earlier expectations that supply would be tight in 1Q/99 did not materialize. HP said the drive industry still has too much capacity with supply exceeding demand. Some disk drives have fallen to less than $100 per drive as had been predicted last year. In addition, all of the four largest drive vendors are now shipping 4.3 gigabytes-per-disk drives. However, channel inventories of both PCs and disk drives are very low. HP said disk drive shipments in 1Q were in line with original expectations, resulting in disk drive inventories comparable to or a bit less than PC inventories, which we estimate are 3 to 3.5 weeks. Our sense is that demand rebounded somewhat in March to achieve this result, which could bode well for visibility in 2Q. Dell awarded Maxtor its Gold award, its second highest, in its annual Supplier Excellence Awards last week. Dell's annual awards are based on suppliers' quality performance, delivery, total cost, flexibility, technology, and pricing. Dell cited Maxtor's understanding of its direct business model and alignment of its overall business strategy.. We view this award as a strong endorsement for Maxtor and particularly noteworthy given that Dell represented nearly 27% of the company's revenue in 1998. Growth in desktop storage capacity appears to have accelerated. Annual capacity increases have climbed to 80-100% last year, up from about 60% in prior years due to improvements in technology. HP is seeing “evolutionary” growth in demand due to the Internet, video conferencing, and other multimedia applications. HP expects a gradual transition to 7,200 rpm in the desktop drive market and estimates 15-20% of industry volumes will be 7,200 rpm by C4Q, depending on pricing and whether vendors pursue cannibalization or differentiation. HP's commercial offerings require less storage due to the use of central storage attached through networking. However, applications are typically stored locally. Whereas, small business and consumer offerings require much more storage since they are generally not networked. HP said the ATA66 interface has little importance until Intel supports it. Western Digital has been shipping ATA66 enabled drives since last November, which the company thinks has enabled Gateway to differentiate its offering, perhaps at a slightly higher cost. Maxtor has said that it currently has ATA66 technology and will support the interface when Intel does. We hear Intel will support the ATA66 interface with their chipsets in 3Q.