Seagate Ships First-Generation Ultra-SCSI Disc Drives

Seagate Technology's (NYSE:SEG) first generation of Ultra-SCSI disc drives has begun shipping in volume with the introduction of the Hawk 2XL, a 5,400-rpm disc drive capable of transferring data at Ultra-SCSI's peak rate of 40 Mbytes/second. Additionally, Seagate re-affirmed its commitment to the Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) and Ultra-SCSI interface standards as complementary technologies for high-end storage applications. The two interface standards, currently being implemented throughout the Seagate array of high-end storage products, including the Barracuda, Hawk, and Elite series of disc drives, will provide a two-tiered approach to meeting the needs of high-end storage applications. Seagate also announced that effective February 2, 1996, with the merger of Seagate and Conner Peripherals, the company has discontinued development of Serial Storage Architecture (SSA) disc drives undertaken by the former Conner Peripherals product development team.

"Seagate's commitment to both FC-AL and Ultra-SCSI is fueled by the overwhelming market demand for these two disc drive interfaces over any other proposed interface for high-end applications," said Phil Detwiler, Seagate's vice president of Marketing and Asia-Pacific Sales. "Our support for both the FC-AL and Ultra-SCSI interfaces provides a secure path for our customers as demands on interface performance and flexibility continue to increase. Clearly, these two interfaces exemplify the best of both the serial and parallel interface worlds."

Ultra-SCSI is an ideal solution for customers looking to cost-effectively double the data rate bandwidth while maintaining compatibility with their current system architecture. For more robust, large-scale applications, FC-AL provides an unprecedented 200 Mbyte/second performance level while also expanding the ability of the user to implement new capabilities for their company's information systems. In addition to bandwidth performance, FC-AL offers dual path redundant access to each device, self-configuring hot-plug connectivity, RAID performance enhancements, and the ability to locate systems and devices up to 30 meters apart via coaxial cable, or up to 10 kilometers apart with fibre optic cable.

In addition to the Hawk 2XL, Seagate's high-performance, 7,200-rpm Barracuda 9 and Barracuda 4LP disc drives will feature Ultra-SCSI interfaces while also being the first Seagate disc drives to ship in volume with the FC-AL interface. Seagate's Elite 23, the industry's first 23-Gbyte disc drive, will likewise support both interface standards.

Seagate Technology, Inc. is a data technology company that provides products for storing, managing and accessing digital information on the world's computer and data communications systems. Seagate is the largest independent disc drive and related components company in the world. Seagate's home page address on the World Wide Web is http://www.seagate.com.

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