Plasmon Commences Initial Shipments of UDO-DMD Drives and Media to Strategic HD DVD Content Management and Mastering Application Providers.

DMD Also Supports Existing DVD Mastering Applications and Targets Future Support For Blu-Ray With Next Generation DMD

DENVER -- Plasmon (LSE: PLM), the trusted source in data archiving, today announced that they have begun initial shipments of their new UDO-DMD (Ultra Density Optical - Digital Master Disk) drives and media to HD DVD content management and mastering solution providers for testing and integration. The UDO-DMD format is part of a technology and business alliance between Mitsubishi([R]) Kagaku Media (MKM), Memory Tech Corporation (MTC), and Plasmon to provide secure distribution and long-term storage of HD DVD content between authoring studios and disc mastering facilities.

Plasmon has passed a major milestone with the initial shipment of DMD to application providers in the high density content mastering market. Two strategic solution providers currently working with DMD are DCA - the optical industry's leading provider of world-class signal processing technology, and MTC - who together with Toshiba developed the original HD DVD technology. Both companies have already been shipped evaluation DMD drives and media for system testing and integration into their applications. First generation DMD30 (30.2GB) is designed for the distribution and archive of new HD DVD and existing DVD content. Second generation DMD60 (60GB) is scheduled to launch in mid 2007 and will also support Blu-ray.

"Since our first DMD announcement in September 2006, progress on product development has been very rapid and support for this new format among leading industry players has been strong," commented Stewart Vane-Tempest, DMD product director at Plasmon. "DMD is based on field-proven UDO technology, which dramatically streamlined our development and manufacturing process. Drives with new firmware are complete; we are manufacturing DMD Write Once and Rewritable media, and Windows connectivity software with an extended API for application integration has been released. Momentum for DMD continues to build as we rollout product to our partners and they complete integration into their software applications."

"DMD offers distinct advantages over the tape media traditionally used to transport content in the past," explained Eric Carson, product manager at DCA. "DMD media has a file system implementation that operates like a removable disc rather than a streaming tape device. This makes integration much simpler, improves performance and provides our customers with a much more flexible solution. Current DCA development plans call for the integration of DMD into our Viper loading and verification product for DVD and high density formats (HD DVD and Blu-ray), and our Archive Manager for automatic archiving of these formats."

"Memory-Tech has several years of successful experience with UDO technology so we have confidence in DMD for the distribution of valuable HD DVD content," commented Shiroharu Kawasaki, President and CEO of Memory-Tech Corporation. "DMD is a very robust media that can stand up to the physical punishment and the fluctuations in environmental conditions that content is subjected to during transport. These properties also make DMD ideal for the long-term archival storage of content. MTC is integrating DMD into our HD DVD authoring tools and HD DVD mastering system, and have already begun to specify the use of DMD with some of the mastering partners."

About DCA

DCA, Inc., Doug Carson & Associates (http://www.dcainc.com), is the industry's leading provider of world-class signal processing technology. Since 1988, optical disc manufacturers have relied on DCA's pre-mastering, mastering and verification products. DCA's products include Pre-Mastering tools (Viper, UDF & Video Verifier, Blazer AACS Workstation), Mastering tools (MIS with Pulse Control System) and Plant Manager tools (Commander job controller, Title Manager reporting index). DCA's leadership position in the optical disc industry extends now to 3G format development for HD DVD and Blu-ray. DCA continues to champion new solutions for optical discs, including its DiscTag, HCRC and job history metadata for automated verification, testing and tracking of job information.

About Memory-Tech Corporation

Memory-Tech Corporation (MTC) is the largest CD/DVD replication company in Japan and has been leading the HD DVD standard development in the DVD Forum. MTC has established the first mass production facility for HD DVD discs and started complete one-stop service for HD DVD production including compression and authoring as well as HD DVD replication. MTC is a DVD Forum Class A Verification Laboratory for DVD and HD DVD product logo certification. MTC is developing various key technologies for HD DVD mass production such as high-end authoring tools, high-quality LBR and reliable disc measurement tools. MTC is also involved in new technologies such as 3-layer HD DVD format and HD DVD based Chinese region format. MTC has also developed UDO based complete digital archive solution, Starchive and Kaleida-Vu. For more information, visit http://www.memory-tech.co.jp.

About Plasmon

Plasmon is the trusted source in archiving systems and provides the most comprehensive line of archival storage solutions, including the flagship Archive Appliance product. Founded in 1984, Plasmon is listed on the London Stock Exchange, (LSE: PLM) with worldwide headquarters in Cambridge, United Kingdom and U.S. headquarters in Denver, Colorado. Plasmon offers longevity, authenticity, and ease of access to critical business data to enterprises looking to protect business assets for competitive reasons and meet regulatory compliance requirements. For more information, visit www.plasmon.com.

Plasmon and UDO are registered trademarks of Plasmon Plc. Copyright 2006