Compaq, Conner, Quantum and Seagate Establish Breakthrough in Diagnostic Design.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 6, 1995 -- Delivering on its promise to provide useful and innovative tools for the information age, Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) today announced a breakthrough design to add diagnostics to hard drives used in desktop personal computers.

Compaq, in conjunction with Conner Peripherals Inc., Quantum Corporation and Seagate Technology Inc., is in the final development stages of a new advanced drive diagnostics specification that with appropriate systems software, will enable hard drives to predict and alert customers to certain types of failures, thus preventing loss of critical data. This will help customers, especially those with networks of desktop computers, greatly reduce their un-scheduled and costly computer downtime.

"Compaq continues to focus its efforts on developing new technology that is useful in solving our customers' business problems of today," said John Rose, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Compaq Desktop PC Division. "Through cooperation from the leading drive manufacturers, we will see these types of intelligent products shortly. This is another example of the industry working together to make PCs easier to use and less costly to maintain."

Compaq has been developing the new specification in cooperation with these leading hard drive manufacturers, each of which has adopted the specification and is currently developing new hard drives with the prediction features. Compaq is also working with other industry leading hard drive manufacturers to implement this specification in their products.

Once finalized, Compaq will make its advanced drive diagnostics specification available to the storage industry for incorporation into standards being developed by appropriate industry groups. It is anticipated that the new specification will be available for release to the industry during the second quarter of 1995.

Industry Endorsements

"Conner is pleased to take part in the development of this specification to enhance the reliability and availability of data," said Gary Marks, vice president of marketing for disk drives at Conner Peripherals. "It's a step forward for the computer industry and comes at a time when PCs are storing a phenomenal amount of information critical to the success of an organization. Like the oil gauge on a car, this specification is designed to alert users before serious problems occur."

"As users demand more power and storage capacity from their computers, they also need higher levels of system reliability," said Young Sohn, Quantum's vice president of worldwide marketing, Desktop and Portables Storage Group. "At Quantum we have a history of providing innovative features for disk drive reliability and data integrity, and now go a step further with this diagnostic feature. As a quality leader Quantum, along with Compaq, is committed to standardizing and further enhancing system reliability features."

"Disc drive enhancements like these advanced diagnostics are allowing system manufacturers to bring mainframe-class reliability features to the PC market," said Amyl Ahola, Seagate's vice president of Product Line Management, Desktop and Mobile Products. "As mission- critical applications continue to migrate from minicomputer and mainframe systems to the PC, data storage reliability becomes increasingly more important for users of PCs. While disc drives today offer a minimum of 300,000 hours MTBF (mean time between failure), the addition of this diagnostics feature provides another level of security to disc drives that greatly enhances a desktop s ability to preserve all-important user data."

Company Background

Compaq Computer Corporation is a world leader in the manufacture of desktop and notebook personal computers, and servers. Founded in 1982, the Company reported 1994 worldwide sales of $10.9 billion. COMPAQ products are sold and supported in more than 100 countries through a network of more than 38,000 Compaq marketing partners. Compaq also sells directly to customers through COMPAQ DirectPlus at 1-800-888-5858.

Founded in 1986, Conner sells, designs and builds a comprehensive line of information storage equipment, including disk drives, tape drives, storage management software and disk array storage systems for a wide range of computer applications.

Quantum Corporation is a leading supplier of storage products for a broad range of computer platforms, serving OEM and distribution customers worldwide. Widely recognized as the industry's quality leader, Quantum is the largest supplier of hard disk drives worldwide. The company's sales for the fiscal year ending March 1994 were $2.1 billion.

Seagate Technology 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's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "SEG."

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CONTACT: For further editorial information, contact:

Compaq Computer Corporation

Lisa Gilbert

713-374-0484

or

Miller Communications

Tony Sapienza, Donna Ruane

617-536-0470

or

Conner Peripherals

Mike Seither

408-456-3743

or

High-Tech Communications (for Quantum Corporation)

Erica Zeidenberg

415-904-7000

or

Seagate Technology

David Webb 

408-439-2838