Plasmon Moves Closer to UDO Production -- New Upgrades Help Leverage Existing Optical Storage Investments.

Business Editors

AIIM 2003

BOOTH #2851

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 7, 2003

Technology Upgrades Provide Customers with a Smooth

Ultra Density Optical Transition Utilizing Their

Existing Optical Storage Hardware

Plasmon (LSE:PLM), the market leader for professional optical storage solutions, today announced an upgrade strategy that will enable customers to implement superior Ultra Density Optical (UDO(TM)) storage capabilities within existing Plasmon optical storage libraries.

The program, announced at the AIIM 2003 Conference and Exposition, enables customers using Plasmon's G-Series 5.25 inch optical libraries to add soon-to-be-released UDO drives while continuing to access data stored on Magneto Optical (MO) cartridges. This "mixed-media" capability will provide Plasmon customers with a clear transition strategy to higher performance and greater capacity optical storage.

"The introduction of our upgrade program will ease the transition to next-generation UDO while leveraging the investments our customers have made in our existing, industry leading optical storage systems," said Nigel Street, Plasmon's CEO. "Being able to add UDO drives to existing hardware configurations, and having the capability to access new or existing data, regardless of technology format, future proofs our customers' past and current optical storage purchases."

Utilizing state-of-the-art blue laser technology, Plasmon's UDO represents the only significant breakthrough in optical storage technology since the release of 14x 9.1 gigabyte Magneto Optical drives in 2000. Initially, Plasmon will offer 30 gigabyte UDO media, with a clear roadmap to 60 gigabyte and then 120 gigabyte media. These new capacity and price performance breakthroughs help poise UDO to set a new standard in professional, high-performance and cost-effective archival storage.

Plasmon's G-Series automated optical product family is recognized as the de-facto standard for archiving mission-critical data and records within many different vertical markets -- including medical imaging, document management, email archiving, financial transaction processing and records processing. The company's optical storage solutions provide cost-effective, extremely long shelf life for stored media and a flawless data retrieval track record. More volatile media, such as magnetic disk and tape, lack the permanence, stability, shelf life and data integrity needed to meet growing customer demand and legislative mandates for unalterable storage formats.

Through the use of the most advanced blue laser technology and newly developed optics, Plasmon's UDO will offer increased optical storage densities from 2.7 gigabits per sq. inch to over 7.4 gigabits per sq. inch. UDO's initial 30-gigabyte capacity, available at $2 per gigabyte, represents a dramatic five-fold decrease in professional optical media costs. The company expects its UDO price per gigabit to approach that of consumer optical products, such as DVD.

"UDO represents the most dramatic improvement in optical storage innovation since 1985, when the first MO products hit the market," says Plasmon's Nigel Street. "Now, through our upgrade program, customers can buy optical storage systems with confidence today and know that their existing investment is protected -- because they can easily make the transition to UDO. Our UDO upgrades will allow customers to realize at least another 10 years from their storage system investments."

Professional 5.25 inch optical storage technology already has an unmatched 15-year history for providing secure, long-term data archival storage. Plasmon's UDO extends that history by providing higher storage capacities in both Rewritable and true Write Once media formats. Providing mixed-media support in G-Series libraries is made possible through UDO's use of the same ISO standard form factor as earlier generation 5.25 inch optical drives and media.

Pricing and Availability

Plasmon's UDO Upgrade Program consists of a simple field upgrade of any G-Series' picker assembly, with new UDO drives and drive control electronics. Pricing for the upgrades will be announced within the fiscal second quarter.

About Plasmon

Founded in 1987, Plasmon is an international business specializing in the design and manufacture of high-end removable data storage solutions and has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 1996 (LSE:PLM). Worldwide, Plasmon has over 500 employees and annual sales revenues in excess of $100m.

Plasmon's world-wide headquarters are in Cambridge in the UK where the company develops and manufactures 12-inch optical disk products at its ISO-9001 certified facility and provides specialist technology consulting to the CD-R and DVD rewritable manufacturing industry. Storage management software and network attached storage products are also developed in the UK. European regional sales offices are located in Munich, Paris, Milan and Antwerp. Plasmon also manufactures optical disc masters in Caen in northern France. In Europe, contact Plasmon at: Whiting Way, Melbourn, Royston, Hertfordshire SG8 6EN; tel: [phone] fax: [phone]. Internet: http://www.plasmon.co.uk e-mail: [e-mail].

In the USA, Plasmon develops and manufactures magneto optical, CD/DVD and tape libraries and optical disk drives at its ISO-9001 certified facilities in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Plasmon is the leading manufacturer of 12-inch optical disk drives and media and also supplies a wide range of storage solutions based on 5.25 inch MO, CD/DVD and LTO/AIT tape storage technologies. Typical end-users of Plasmon products include banks, hospitals, insurance companies and government departments where the secure archival of large amounts of data are primary requirements. In North America, contact Plasmon at: 400 Inverness Parkway, Englewood, Colorado; tel: [phone] or 303/925-1855. Internet: http://www.plasmon.com e-mail: [e-mail].

UDO is a registered trademark of Plasmon Plc.