Panasonic DVDBurner Featured in Young Minds' Scaleable DVD Recording Systems; Complete DVD Recording Solutions for UNIX, NT and Linux Environments.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 11, 2001

Panasonic and Young Minds, Inc. (YMi), a leading provider of optical recording products, announced today that Young Minds is incorporating Panasonic's DVDBurner(R) in its complete line of DVD recordable solutions. Ranging from single-drive, manual-load systems to multiple-drive, automated systems, YMi network-ready recording products optimize the high capacity, security and broad sharing capabilities of the 4.7GB DVDBurner's write-once DVD-R General technology.

By combining the drive with its recording products, YMi provides complete, scalable, cost-effective solutions for archiving and distributing large data sets; developing and testing DVD-ROM applications prior to replication; developing and testing multimedia content; and archiving video files.

The DVDBurner's write-once DVD-R General technology provides businesses, banks, insurance firms, law firms, healthcare operations and governmental agencies with the security they need for recording, distributing, and archiving mission-critical data and images that cannot be altered or erased. Using 4.7GB DVD-R General media, the Panasonic DVD-RAM/R drive provides a transfer rate of up to 11.08 Mbps, which is equivalent to about 9 times the transfer rate of CD-ROM's 1X speed. Offering broad compatibility, the recorded DVD-R General discs can be played back by most of the DVD-ROM drives, DVD players and DVD recorders in use today.

To enhance system performance, all YMi DVD recording products feature the Studio Intelligent Controller that offloads recording tasks from the host to ensure fast data throughput, eliminate bandwidth bottlenecks and free-up host resources. The Studio Intelligent Controller features sustained data throughput of 8MB/s. A 4.7GB dataset -- the capacity of a DVD-R General disc -- can be downloaded by the Studio Intelligent Controller in about 10 minutes.

YMi DVD recordable systems are scalable solutions that preserve the buyer's original investment and provide rapid ROI through simple "plug and play" installation, ease-of-use, and trouble-free operation on virtually any workstation or server. Young Minds' intelligent controller technology and MakeDisc+ premastering software allow users to add different hardware and software modules and DVDBurners to create a solution that will grow with their production and capacity requirements. A DVD Studio recording system easily scales to become PowerDVD Studio -- a complete automated multi-user capable, high-volume system. For the most demanding applications, such as check imaging, e-commerce, GIS/satellite imaging, prepress, and healthcare imaging, users can upgrade to MPS4+ or StudioX systems with up to four autoloading DVDBurners and an inline disc label printer. DVD-Q, a Java-based automation application, is available for these automated solutions to manage network traffic and job queuing.

"Young Minds is focused on providing standards-based archival and distribution solutions that cost-effectively preserve data, improve data access and enhance data sharing," said Jim Bolander, Young Minds Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "By preserving existing Unix filenames and directory structures, we ensure that our customers will always be able to access their data once it has been recorded on DVD. The DVDBurner is the ideal storage device for our systems because it produces standards-compliant recorded DVD-R General discs that can be read by virtually any DVD device. The discs are ideal for archiving because they can't be erased or altered and have a 100-year data life."

"With Young Minds' DVD Studio products, businesses have a complete DVD recording solution that's easy to integrate into existing applications and network topologies and easy to use," said Mark Shibata, marketing general manager of Panasonic Industrial Company. "They don't have to worry about hardware/software incompatibilities or time-consuming installations. All of the components combine to achieve the highest reliability and the best performance."

Pricing, Availability

All Young Minds' controller-based products are complete solutions that do not require additional network or per-user license fees. All YMi recording solutions are available on Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, IRIX, and more than 20 other UNIX platforms; plus Linux and Windows NT.

The Panasonic DVDBurner is available for immediate delivery to OEMs, authorized channel partners and consumers.

About Young Minds, Inc.

Founded in 1989, Young Minds, Inc. (YMi) provides a complete line of network storage appliances and network capable CD /DVD Recording storage solutions that work with UNIX, Linux, and Windows NT operating systems. YMi pioneered CD-Recording and CD-ROM mass storage in the UNIX market, and continues to deliver the most innovative solutions that are reliable, cost-effective and easy to use. Andrew Young, Chairman and co-founder of the company, authored the Rock Ridge Interchange Protocols, which define additional functionality for ISO 9660 standard discs used in UNIX environments.

Thousands of YMi systems are in use throughout the world in business, industry, government agencies and educational institutions. Young Minds can be reached on the Internet at http://www.ymi.com or call 800/964-4964.

About Panasonic

Panasonic is the best known brand name of Osaka, Japan-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE:MC), one of the world's leading producers of electronic and electric products for consumer, business and industrial use. Additional information on Panasonic and Matsushita Electric is available at www.panasonic.com.

For more information on the Panasonic DVD-RAM/R OEM drive and DVD media, contact Panasonic Industrial Company, 1600 McCandless Drive, Milpitas, CA 95035; 408/945-5600, FAX [phone], E-mail [e-mail]. Or, visit the company's Web site at www.panasonic.com/oemdvd-ram. For more information on Panasonic-branded DVD-RAM/R drives and DVD media, contact Panasonic Digital Imaging Solutions Company, Two Panasonic Way 7D-8, Secaucus, NJ 07094 800/742-8086, www.panasonic.com/storage or E-mail [e-mail]. In Canada, contact Panasonic Canada, Ambler Drive, Mississauga, Ontario L4W 2T3, Canada; 905/238-2254, FAX [phone], E-mail [e-mail].

Young Minds, Inc. is not a part or in any way legally affiliated with Panasonic Industrial Company. Panasonic Industrial Company assumes no responsibility for the performance of or customer satisfaction with Young Mind's products. All company and/or product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective manufacturers. Features, pricing, availability and specifications are subject to change without notice.