U.S. Air Force personnel records system uses ATG Cygnet Optical Storage Libraries; Cordant Inc. creates automated digital optical system to efficiently manage millions of personnel records.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 1994--ATG Cygnet Inc. announced that the U.S. Air Force's new Automated Records Management System (ARMS), at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, uses ATG Cygnet Optical Storage Libraries.

The system, in full production since Sept. 1, 1994, is being used to store images of nearly 10,000 paper documents and over 60,000 digitized microfiche images, daily on 12-in. WORM (Write Once Read Many) digital optical disks.

Conversion of back records for all active duty Air Force personnel, including 1 million paper documents and 22.5 million microfiche images, is scheduled for completion by September, 1995.

Cordant Inc. of Reston, Va., designed ARMS to store master personnel document images for all active duty, Guard and Reserve members of the Air Force at the Military Personnel Center. The system scans, indexes and stores these records in four ATG Cygnet Series 1800 optical storage libraries, each configured with two ATG Cygnet GD 9001, 12-in. optical disk drives.

Three of the libraries hold 131 optical disks each, and the fourth holds 51 optical disks for a total system storage capacity of 4.26 TB (Terabytes).

The Air Force system required assured data integrity, so Cordant chose true WORM technology with a specified data life of at least 30 years. Once the images are stored on the 12-in. optical disks, they cannot be altered.

"In the ARMS program, we needed to combine the performance of electronic record management with the permanent data integrity of microfiche," said Tom Ballard, vice president of Federal Programs at Cordant Inc.

"The ATG Cygnet 12-inch WORM, digital optical storage solution met those program requirements for system performance, while offering new operating efficiencies. The proven reliability of ATG Cygnet libraries, and the price-performance leadership of ATG Cygnet drives and platters made them the clear choice."

Before ARMS, records were kept in paper files and on microfiche, and updating a document took seven days. With the automated system, files can be retrieved in a matter of seconds and an update can be completed in less than a day. Other efficiencies of the new system include space utilization and reduced staffing needs.

The digital optical system is far more compact, with more than 60 million images in the four optical jukeboxes, which have individual footprints of less than 200 sq. ft. Filing and retrieval is fully automated, requiring far fewer personnel.

A second group of records at the Air Force Reserve Personnel Center in Denver will be scanned into the system beginning in late 1995. The data will be transferred by T1 lines to Randolph Air Force Base, for single site storage and maintenance.

"With the installation of ARMS, ATG Cygnet libraries are now helping to manage personnel records storage in two of the three branches of the U.S. military," said Gil Van Schoor, vice president of marketing and sales at ATG Cygnet.

"We have been up and running in the U.S. Army Personnel Electronic Record Management System (PERMS) since early this year, providing storage for more than 200 million pages of records in 10 ATG Cygnet libraries."

ATG Cygnet Inc., created by the October 1993 merger of ATG Gigadisc and Cygnet Systems Inc., is a ten-year old, international supplier of mass storage solutions. The company's jukebox autochanger and storage systems products are sold to OEMs -- including AT&T, BULL, IBM, ICL, Siemens-Nixdorf and UNISYS -- and resellers.

The company's product line, which supports every major type of 12-in. optical drive now available, includes the expandable Series 1800 library family and the Advanced Storage Module, a fixed-capacity storage subsystem equipped with drives from either ATG Cygnet, Philips LMS or Nikon. The GD 9001/S WORM digital optical drive and media, both manufactured by ATG Cygnet, are the industry's highest capacity 12-in. optical drives, at 10.2 GB per disk cartridge.

CONTACT: ATG Cygnet Inc., San Jose

              Dennis Janes, 408/954-1800
              FS Communications
              Matthew Schmidt or Wendy Lewis, 415/691-1488