MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Plasmon today announced plans to support Sony Corporation's next generation high-capacity, high-performance Ultra Density Optical (UDO) drive/media technology within its optical storage automation products, with product availability in 2002.

Plasmon, the leading provider of removable data storage products, plans to integrate the first generation 40 GB capacity media/drives into its existing and future optical automation products which would provide substantial capacity increases to current and future 5.25-inch optical automation libraries. The UDO technology will support both RW (re-writable) and WORM (Write Once Read Many) media and will be contained in a cartridge with the same dimensions as the current ISO standard 5.25-inch magneto optical (MO) disk.

In the future, customers purchasing Plasmon's 5.25-inch optical libraries can take advantage of the increased storage capacity of the libraries when combined with the new UDO technology. The first generation 40 GB capacity UDO drive will increase Plasmon's 5.25-inch automation capacity by almost 800 percent within the same library when compared to the current 5.25-inch magneto optical drive technology. "The next generation UDO technology will provide a quantum leap in storage capacities and a real decrease in total cost of ownership for customers investing in optical automation," according to Rob McPherson, president of Plasmon IDE. For example, Plasmon's flagship M500 will have a capacity of 20 TB (terabytes) with the 40 GB UDO format integrated into the library as compared to 2.6 TB with the current 5.2 GB-8X magneto optical drive/media within the same M500 library.

"With the final increase in capacity for ISO 5.25" MO drives and media on the near horizon, businesses that require high capacity near-line storage will need to look at new 5.25 inch optical formats. UDO delivering 40GB capacity can fill that void if it delivers on its promise of reasonable cost per gigabyte," said Wolfgang Schlichting, research manager, removable storage at IDC.

The UDO drives/media are being developed to support data intensive storage requirements for data archival environments such as e-commerce, e-trading, financial, and document imaging applications where reliable, frequent, and random access to mission critical files in 24X7X365 environments are required. New market applications with ever increasing storage requirements will need more sophisticated automation products to leverage the UDO technology optimally.

Tom Ferguson, VP of marketing at Plasmon said, "Plasmon will take a leadership role in providing automation products and storage solutions that meet these demanding requirements."

Plasmon sees the advent of the 5.25-inch UDO roadmap as an opportunity for current and future optical customers to continue with leading edge optical storage solutions that provide unique benefits which customers require in data archival applications.

Optical storage provides the benefits of random access, high transfer rate and proven long-term media life and reliability. Key markets for optical solutions include document management, medical imaging, financial records, e-mail archiving, telecommunications and voice recording systems, as well as more traditional areas such as data migration and secondary storage.

Optical data storage is the platform of choice for many storage applications where near-line archives of terabytes of data need to be accessed quickly. Some 120,000 5.25-inch optical drives and 10,000 jukebox systems were shipped in 1999, with increases in revenue and capacities forecast over the coming years.

Plasmon, an ISO 9001 manufacturing company, holds more than 38 percent of the 5.25-inch optical library market (according to IDC), and is a leading supplier of 5.25-inch optical storage worldwide.

About Plasmon

Established in 1987, Plasmon plc is an international data storage business headquartered from the UK specializing in removable data storage technologies. Plasmon's architectural configurations provide the highest level of automated flexibility through the implementation of 12-inch TrueWORM(TM) (write once, read many), 5.25-inch MO (magneto optical), LTO-Ultrium, Magstar-MP, CD-ROM/CD-R, DVD-RAM and media. Plasmon also provides a range of storage management software and network-attach storage solutions.

With worldwide headquarters in the UK and operations across Europe and the US, the company also has manufacturing facilities in the U.K., and in the U.S. in Colorado and Minnesota. Plasmon's worldwide headquarters and European sales and marketing are located at: Whiting Way, Melbourn, Royston, Hertfordshire SG8 6EN; tel: +44 (0)1763 262963 fax: +44 (0)1763 264444. http://www.plasmon.co.uk. e-mail: [email protected] Plasmon's U.S. Sales and Marketing headquarters are located at: 9625 West 76th St., Eden Prairie, MN 55344; tel: 800-451-6845 or 612-946-4100; fax: 612-946-4141; http://www.plasmon.com . e-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE: Plasmon