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Subject: DECnews/Digital's New Solid State Disks
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||||||||||||  DEC n e w s  ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
                                              Digital Equipment Corporation
                                          Maynard, Massachusetts 01754-2571
Editorial contact:

Scott Sweeney
(508) 841-3595
 
 
 


        DIGITAL'S NEW SOLID STATE DISKS FOR DSSI SYSTEMS LEAD

          THE INDUSTRY IN PRICE, PERFORMANCE AND PACKAGING


MAYNARD, Mass. -- November 9, 1992 -- Digital Equipment Corporation 
today announced new Solid State Disks (SSDs) that help users harness 
the speed of high-performance VAX and RISC systems.  The two new 
EF5x SSDs provide users with: 
               
     o  Increased Application Productivity -- The new SSDs offer
     	application throughput that is up to 10 times better than
     	when using magnetic disks by providing 100 times quicker
     	access to stored data.
 
     o  Lightning-Quick Data Access for More Users -- These models
     	provide the fast performance of SSDs (0.25 millisecond
     	access time) to DSSI-based systems, including:  VAX 4000 
     	systems, VAX 6000 systems, VAX 7000 systems, VAX 10000 
     	systems, and VAXcluster systems.
 
     o  Affordable High-Performance Storage for a Wider Range of
     	Applications -- With prices starting at $19,000, the new
     	SSDs are cost effective for business-critical applications
     	on smaller systems, such as VAX 4000 systems, and for 
     	distributed and server applications.
 
     "Today's faster processors can't deliver the high performance 
users expect because they're often bogged down by sluggish I/O," 
said Tom Frederick, Digital's Vice President of the Memory Products 
Group.  "Magnetic disks simply can't service the CPU requests for 
data fast enough.  We've solved that problem with high-performance, 
high-capacity, cost-effective SSDs that have standard packaging and 
are as simple to use as a magnetic disk." 
     The EF5x SSDs feature Digital's "plug-and-play" functionality:
they are packaged in a standard 5 1/4" form factor and are easily
installed in systems or storage arrays, with no need for software
rewrites or operational changes.  The two models are: 
 
     EF51R SSD - 107MB formatted capacity - $19,000
     EF52R SSD - 205MB formatted capacity - $32,000
 

     "The EF5x SSDs demonstrate our ongoing commitment to support 
the systems and interconnects of today and tomorrow," said 
Frederick.  "We're already supporting a wide range of Digital 
systems and, in the near future, we'll be adding other systems.  
We're well positioned to take advantage of the growing opportunity 
for solid state disk in the industry." 
     The EF5x SSDs offer high availability and feature Digital's 
unique, integrated data retention system, which combines power 
sensing logic, batteries, and an integrated hard disk to back up 
the SSD's data to non-volatile magnetic storage if system power 
is lost.  In the event of a power failure, the data retention 
system offloads data from the SSD's storage arrays to the hard disk 
for safe, secure storage, until power is restored.
     Orders may be placed immediately.  Shipments will begin in 
December 1992.

IMPROVED SYSTEM PERFORMANCE AND APPLICATION PRODUCTIVITY
     Digital's solid state disks improve the productivity of 
revenue-generating applications, customer service applications,
and "beat-the-clock" throughput-critical applications.
These applications are found in a broad range of industries, from 
finance and telecommunications to travel, transportation, 
manufacturing, and publishing - all environments with high 
transaction rates.
     Typical solid state disk applications include: financial
trading, reservations systems, lottery and betting systems, order
processing, claims processing, shop floor and MRP II, credit card
systems, insurance policy information systems, call handling and
scheduling systems, and network management. 
     SSDs are semiconductor-based devices that look like disk drives 
to a computer system, but provide significantly faster access to 
data than magnetic disks.  SSDs typically improve system performance 
by providing quick access to the user's most heavily accessed files.  
Placing data on a solid state disk eliminates the seek and 
rotational delays inherent in magnetic disk drive operations, and 
delivers solid state speed to yield significant I/O performance 
gains.  
     Digital Equipment Corporation, headquartered in Maynard,
Massachusetts, is the leading worldwide supplier of networked 
computer systems, software and services.  The company pioneered and 
leads the industry in interactive, distributed and multivendor
computing.  Digital and its business partners deliver the power to 
use the best integrated solutions - from desktop to data center - in 
open information environments. 
                                ####

Note to Editors:  EF5x, VAX 4000, VAX 6000, VAX7000, VAX 10000, 
                  DSSI, VAXcluster are trademarks of Digital 
                  Equipment Corporation.

CORP/93/867
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  Digital Equipment Corporation
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