HMT Delivers Volume Shipments of Advanced GMR Media to Maxtor Corporation for its 60 GB Disk Drive.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 24, 2000

HMT Technology Corp. (Nasdaq:HMTT) today announced that Maxtor Corporation has qualified HMT's 15.4 GB per platter, GMR (giant magneto-resistive) media for its new performance oriented desktop drive.

The DiamondMax(R) 60 hard disk drive supports areal densities exceeding 11 gigabits per square inch. Maxtor Corporation has also qualified HMT's 15.4 GB/platter disks in its DiamondMax VL 30 disk drive program, a value line market product offering.

"We are very well positioned to execute the time to volume ramp strategy required by Maxtor's DiamondMax 60, while providing the outstanding quality and reliability attributes which our disk product brings to the market place," said Ron Buschur, president and COO of HMT. "With 15.4 GB of storage capacity per 3 1/2" platter, and areal densities of over 11 gigabits per square inch, we believe that this disk drive represents the leading technology currently available in this industry," continued Buschur.

To accomplish the 15.4 GB per platter storage capacity design challenge, HMT combined many patented media processes which include an ultra smooth data zone texture, an advanced thin carbon overcoat process and a patented lube system. These systems were used in conjunction with HMT's newly developed magnetic alloy system and thin film deposition process. This new process provides for extremely low residual noise parameters in a magnetic thin film, which is critical to the performance in today's high performance hard disk drives. This disk complements other recent HMT product offerings and continues to exemplify the company's commitment to meet the technology challenges of today and into the future.

"At 15.4 GB per disk, the DiamondMax 60 sets a new standard for areal density in the industry for 5,400 RPM desktop disk drives," said Mike Cannon, Maxtor's president and CEO. "Merchant market component suppliers such as HMT have been key to our success in reaching this milestone, and we are pleased that HMT was able to meet our qualification schedule on this product."

"We are very excited about the opportunity to provide the latest disk technology support which Maxtor requires," said Ron Buschur. "As you examine the wide range of technological advances which Maxtor has announced like the DiamondMax 60, you realize the value to HMT of our relationship with such a company."

"HMT is proud to be considered a longstanding strategic partner of Maxtor's, as demonstrated by our participation in another of their high-volume, high profile products," said Buschur.

HMT Technology Corporation independently designs, develops, manufactures and markets high-performance thin-film disks. The company's products are used in high-capacity hard disk drives for a variety of high-end applications including personal computers, network servers and workstations, and in certain removable hard disk drive applications. The disks currently being shipped by HMT primarily have coercivity levels of 2000 to 3400 Oersted, a measure of storage capacity, and glide heights of 1.2 to below 0.6 microinches. The company's shares are traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol HMTT. Additional information may be obtained by visiting HMT's website at http://www.hmtt.com, or by contacting the company directly.

The statements in this news release, other than the historical financial information, may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from predicted results. Further information on factors that could affect the company's results is detailed in the company's report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 199 and report on Form 10-Q for the period ended Dec. 31, 1999, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements.