Commerce Department awards technology grant to Kodak for 14-inch optical disk research.

ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 18, 1995--Eastman Kodak Company today announced that is has received a four-year, $6.3 million grant from the US Commerce Department to develop a new optical disk system with one terabyte of storage per platter-more than forty times the storage capacity of today's technology.

"This is a really promising technical area where Kodak has significant investments and proprietary value," said George Fisher, president and CEO of Eastman Kodak Company. "We have major partners investing in our optical technology and we are pleased to note the recent interest of the Federal government in this and their selection of our proposal over competitive alternatives."

Large-format optical disk systems are used to output and store data from mainframe and networked computers using large digital files requiring quick, cost-effective retrieval. The current Kodak Optical Disk System 2000 uses laser-writing and media technology from Kodak to store data on 14-inch optical disks, with a capacity of up to 14.8 gigabytes per platter. Up to 100 of the disks can be placed in the Kodak automated disk library, or "jukebox," today storing close to two terabytes of data, and providing users access to any individual file in seconds. Kodak offers the only optical media that is approved by the International Standards Organization (ISO) as a standard for large-format optical recording.

Optical disk systems are commonly used by organizations such as financial institutions, insurance companies, engineering firms, publishing companies, hospitals and government agencies. The Internal Revenue Service, for example, is using 14-inch Kodak optical disk systems to store and retrieve taxpayer returns electronically instead of on paper.

The Commerce Department awarded 21 technology grants and over $70 million as part of its Advanced Technology Program (ATP). The program provides cost-shared funding to industry in support of strategic research into cutting edge technologies with broad-based economic benefits for the United States. "This award is a strong endorsement of Kodak digital technology as well as strong recognition of the potential of optical technology," said Joseph Miceli, Kodak's general manager for storage products.

Kodak's proposal was part of a collaborative effort with three other development partners: the National Storage Industry Consortium of San Diego, SDL of San Jose and Carnegie-Mellon University of Pittsburgh. The team was collectively awarded over $10 million and will invest an additional $11 million of their own funds in the project as part of the cost sharing agreement.

CONTACT: Eastman Kodak Co.

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