Fujitsu Introduces New Line of Mobile Hard Drives for Reliable, High-Performance Storage in Notebook PCs.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 1999--

Meets Diverse Mobile Computing Demands With Unparalleled

Ruggedness and Capacities of up to 10 GB

Fujitsu Computer Products of America, one of the fastest growing major hard drive suppliers, today announced the introduction of a new line of 2.5-inch mobile hard drives. The new series offers up to 10 GB storage capacity for notebook PC users who require high-capacity storage with unparalleled reliability and performance.

"With the introduction of our new mobile hard drive line, Fujitsu continues its commitment to provide the rugged, high-capacity mobile storage solutions that top notebook PC manufacturers are demanding," commented Ken Oberman, vice president desktop and mobile storage, Fujitsu Computer Products of America. "We believe this product line will help Fujitsu to uphold its position as the world's fastest growing mobile disk drive supplier."

Based on figures from the market analyst firm International Data Corporation, Fujitsu's mobile disk drive shipment numbers grew by 164 percent in 1998, dramatically exceeding the mobile disk drive industry's overall growth rate of 14 percent. This increase in shipment numbers has made Fujitsu the industry's fastest growing supplier of mobile disk drives, growing its share of the market from 7.8 percent in 1997 to 16.8 percent in 1998.

"Over the past two years, Fujitsu has become a formidable competitor in the disk drive industry," commented senior research analyst Danielle Levitas, International Data Corporation. "The company is making progress with some key notebook PC OEM customers, and should continue to see shipment levels increase year over year in the 2.5-inch disk drive market. Furthermore, Fujitsu was the only company to gain share in all three market segments -- enterprise, desktop, and mobile -- in 1998."

Fujitsu credits its impressive growth to the keen focus of its worldwide engineering, operational, and marketing divisions on real product needs of the company's customers, and its ability to consistently achieve competitive time-to-volume with successive generations of mobile storage products. Recent advancements from this directed research and development, such as GMR technology, have enabled Fujitsu to successfully engage with several major notebook PC OEM customers.

MHG2102AT/MHH20XXAT Series Highlights

Because Fujitsu develops and manufactures its own GMR heads and supporting component technology, the new mobile hard drives, MHG2102AT/MHH20XXAT, feature a number of key technical innovations that are offered exclusively in Fujitsu disk drives. Highlights include:

-- Design modifications for greater reliability

To enhance the ruggedness and reliability of the new mobile series drives, Fujitsu has increased the thickness and rigidity of its base casting, a design transition that improves resistance to shock and vibration. The new drives also include Fujitsu's "stiction free slider" enabling the use of super smooth media surfaces, which decreases the potential for stiction and thermal asperity. In addition, Fujitsu implemented ridges on the disk spacers to decrease movement of the heads, minimizing the possibility of shock damage.

-- Performance Enhancements

The new Mobile MHG2102AT/MHH20XXAT Series hard drives utilize Fujitsu's proprietary CPU-chip with a 16-bit system bus to increase drive processing performance. Additionally, Fujitsu's enhanced areal density has increased the new drives' internal data transfer rate to 15.8 MB/second.

-- Second Generation GMR for proven reliability

Fujitsu's spin-valve heads are smaller, lighter, and more sensitive than previous generations, allowing them to fly at a lower height and access data more quickly. To help correct "disk shift," Fujitsu has implemented a feature called "repeatable run-out compensation", which performs diagnostics each time the drive starts up and electronically compensates for errant mechanical movement.

Availability

The MHG2102AT/MHH20XXAT Series consists of four 2.5-inch mobile disk drives, all of which are available at 4200 RPM with the ATA-4 interface. The MHG2102AT provides 10 GB in a 12.5mm drive and brings the advantages of high-capacity storage and outstanding performance to "power-oriented" notebook users. The MHH20XXAT delivers optimal performance at an excellent value with three 9.5mm drives at capacities of 3.2 GB, 4.8 GB and 6.4 GB. The new drives will be available by end of the first calendar quarter of 1999.

About Fujitsu Limited

Fujitsu Limited is a leading provider of information technology products and solutions for the global marketplace. Founded in Japan in 1935 as a telephone equipment maker, the Fujitsu Group had consolidated revenues of $37.7 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 1998. With over 500 group companies, including Amdahl and ICL, Fujitsu is one of the world's largest suppliers of computers and information systems solutions, telecommunications and semiconductor products, software and services. The Fujitsu Group has over 180,000 employees worldwide and operations in more than 100 countries. Home page: http://www.fujitsu.com.

About Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc.

Fujitsu Computer Products of America is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited. Benefiting from Fujitsu Ltd.'s investments in research and development, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. provides innovative solutions for the U.S. marketplace. Current product offerings include: high performance hard disk drives, tape drives, magneto-optical drives, high performance scanners and printers. The company of approximately 700 encompasses research and development operations in Longmont, Colo.; computer peripheral repair in Hillsboro, Ore.; engineering and marketing in San Jose, Calif.; and sales operations throughout the United States. Fujitsu Computer Products of America is based in San Jose, Calif. and is located at 2904 Orchard Parkway, San Jose, Calif. 95134.

For more information about Fujitsu products and services, use our Internet Web site at http://www.fcpa.com. The company can be reached by phone at 800/626-4686 or 408/432-6333.

Fujitsu and the Fujitsu logo are registered trademarks of Fujitsu Limited. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.