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COPAN CHOOSES HITACHI TO MANUFACTURE DISK-BASED TAPE ALTERNATIVE

Hitachi Computer Products (America) Inc (Hitachi Oklahoma Manufacturing Division), a provider of Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS), has formed a strategic partnership with COPAN Systems to manufacture COPAN's Revolution 200T, the first and only storage solution that delivers a disk-based long-term data repository that combines the performance, availability and data protection of disk with the price and scale of tape.

"Our vision is to change the way customers can store and access long term digital data," said COPAN Systems President and Chief Executive Officer Dave Davenport. "Our Revolution 200T offers the first true disk alternative to tape. Our customers expect enterprise-quality systems for their data centers. That's why we needed a strategic partner that could meet our customers' requirements and manage the end-to-end manufacturing process."

COPAN Systems looked at more than 30 companies before choosing Hitachi OMD. "They had the expertise we were looking for," Davenport said. "They started out manufacturing products for Hitachi Data Systems and have extensive experience building RAID disk systems and integrating quality assurance into their procedures. They were simply the best qualified to meet our needs."

"We are very pleased to have been selected by Copan as their contract manufacturer to produce their Revolution 200T product they are introducing into the marketplace," said George Wilson, president of Hitachi Computer Products (America) Inc. "Besides our expertise in high-reliability manufacturing, our location in the center of the United States offers key advantages in terms of logistics and response time. For the Revolution 200T program, we efficiently produced the first production unit in six weeks."

"COPAN is known for its high-capacity, complex data storage products. Hitachi is famous for producing high-reliability, complex products. When you consider what the two companies bring to the table, you see why this collaboration makes excellent business sense," said Eric Sumpter, COO of COPAN Systems.

About Hitachi

Hitachi Computer Products (America) Inc Oklahoma Manufacturing Division, a subsidiary of Hitachi America Ltd, is a contract manufacturer operating in a variety of industries including telecommunications, networking systems, computer peripherals, industrial controls, medical systems and semiconductor equipment. Hitachi's Electronic Manufacturing Services include PCB assemblies, box builds, build-to-order and configure-to-order products. Visit Hitachi OMD on the Web at www.hitachiomd.com.