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IMATION APPLIES FOR LTO ULTRIUM FORMAT GENERATION 3 LICENSE

Imation Corp announced it applied for the Ultrium format Generation 3 license -- demonstrating its continued commitment to the LTO Ultrium format. With Imation's new Tera Angstrom technology and terabyte-class magnetic tape manufacturing facility in Weatherford, Okla., customers can continue to rely on Imation as a trusted source for advanced tape media development to reach the next milestone on the LTO Ultrium roadmap.

"Imation has aggressively pursued tape technology advancement with its investment in the world's first terabyte-class magnetic tape manufacturing facility built specifically for the development of next-generation tape products," said Colleen Willhite, vice president and general manager of Imation Corp. "We are committed to the LTO Ultrium roadmap and providing our customers with higher capacity, faster performing products to continue to meet the increased storage demands they are facing today."

The LTO Ultrium technology format has been well adopted by high-capacity tape users looking for an open format that offers brand choices and a defined roadmap to reach terabyte-class storage. With open system architectures becoming entrenched in organizations worldwide and data storage capacity needs growing, LTO Ultrium technology provides a roadmap with increased capacity and transfer rate specifications to keep pace with end user data storage requirements.

The LTO Ultrium format roadmap promises a significant increase in speed and capacity for end users. Ultrium Generation 3 tape storage capacity will increase to 800GB compressed (400GB native capacity) and 160MB per second compressed transfer rate (80MB per second native).

To ensure data interchange compliance, the LTO Program requires all licensees to pass a series of compliance verification tests before being issued a license and the right to display the trusted Ultrium trademark. Compliance testing of all Ultrium products must be completed annually to ensure that all manufacturers adhere to the LTO Ultrium format specifications. Buyers seeking true Ultrium format-compliant products should look for the LTO Ultrium format compliance verification marks on both tape drives and data cartridges.

Availability of Imation's Ultrium 3 Cartridge is expected in the late 2004 timeframe, contingent upon the launch and availability of Ultrium 3 Drives.