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| March 19, 1998 |
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SALES OF A LARGE CAPACITY,
HIGH SPEED DATA STORAGE SYSTEM |
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Mitsubishi Chemical Corp.
NCR Japan, Ltd.
Kubota Corp. |
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Three companies: Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (Tokyo, Japan, President:
Akira Miura), NCR Japan, Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan, President: Kiichiro Tanaka) and Kubota
Corp. (Osaka, Japan) have jointly developed a controller (provisionally named
as "Hyper Agent") for the utilization of an automatic changer for magneto-optical
disks (MO) as the data storage and back-up means in the information system, and
have commercialized a large capacity, high speed data storage system as their
combination.
In the present era of multi-media, the down-sizing and net working of information
systems have been in rapid progress both in private firms and governments, causing
tremendous increase of data sizes, frequencies of data access, extension of data
storage periods, increasing costs for data management, etc. On the other hand,
measures required for extensive data back-up in case of computer troubles caused
by disaster or artificial mistakes are being waited for in the society, calling
for a clear cut proposal about how to safely store large capacity data over a
long time and how to operate the data at low cost.
To meet these request, said three companies have been engaged in a joint development
program and decided for the sales of a large capacity high speed data storage
system as a combination of automatic MO disk changer with a controller provisionally
called as "Hyper Agent".(The price is not decided yet.)
A design of connecting "Hyper Agent", a new development, between an automatic
MO disk changer and a server and to utilize a magnetic disk equipment built in
"Hyper Agent" as a cache for the MO disks enable to secure the same fast response
speed as provided by a large capacity hard disk, without the need for consideration
of time for changing MO disks. Since all the data are automatically written in
MO disks having outstanding resistance to degradation upon aging, recording media
may be removed out of the automatic changer for prolonged storage (as archives),
as it is.
Conventional automatic MO disk changers require a time ranging from several ten
seconds to a few minutes for the replacement of MO disks, so that they cannot
be used conveniently as a memory system in a network server which sends and receives
data at fast speeds, but with the development of the present equipment, a large
capacity data storage system for network application was realized.
Main features and application examples for the present system are described in
Attachment. Marketing of "Hyper Agent" is handled by Mitsubishi Chemical Corp.,
and a system product combined with an automatic MO disk changer (manufactured
by Kubota Corp.) is to be released for sales through major system manufacturers,
etc. in April of this year. Also, NCR Japan, Ltd. and Kubota Corp. are respectively
planning the distribution upon the procurement from Mitsubishi Chemical Corp.
Installation and maintenance for "Hyper Agent" are handled by the 140 Service
Centers of NCR Japan, Ltd., all over Japan. Thus, users located outside metropolitan
areas may safely adopt the present equipment without any troubles and worries.
Furthermore, when a user subscribes to the multi-vendor support system of NCR
Japan, Ltd., he will be entitled to enjoy a total support for the information
system in which "Hyper Agent" is built-in. These are the part of the fruits from
the tri-party cooperation in order to provide the customers with a total solution.
| For further information, please refer to the
following |
| Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., |
| Public Relation and Surveying Department |
| Tel: [+81]-(0)3-3283-6274 |
* On March, 19, 1998, NCR Japan, Ltd. has made a news release on this subject
to Machinery Press Club (Japan).
[News Release, completed, Attachment follows]
| ATTACHMENT |
| 1. Main Features of the Data Storage System Utilizing
"Hyper Agent" |
| (1) |
High Reliability:
A MO disk is adopted as the final recording media, and the total system has excellent
archive properties as well as the complete error recovery function with high competence.
Options are available for the mirroring of built-in disks in the controller as
well as the built-in of a power supply with no failure. |
| (2) |
High Speed Response:
Response at the same high speed as in SCSI connected outside disks, and the hitting
rate of the disk cache has been significantly improved. |
| (3) |
Low Operation and Management Costs:
Installation is very easy, the automatic changer is full automatically controlled,
and almost no system engineering works are required, so that the burden on management
for system management has been significantly reduced. |
| (4) |
Low Costs for Environmental Maintenance
MO media used are high temperature resistant, and may be stored at a temperature
up to 55
and at a humidity up to 85% so that air conditioning is not required. |
| (5) |
Space Saving
Serving also as a storage for archive disks, the system may store 100 GB data
in a 0.3 cu. m. space. |
| 2. Major Examples of Applications |
| (1) |
Information systems for medical images, CAD drawings, manuscripts,
press photographs, various contract documents, etc., which need safekeeping over
a long period of time as well as immediate retrieval through a network server,
may be built up in remarkablly shortened periods by the adoption of the present
equipment. |
| (2) |
During the replacement of modification of information systems
to deal with problems, of AD 2000, etc., necessity for manually rewriting past
information in optical disks has been occurring very frequently. This equipment
is useful for the automation of the required job. Moreover, this equipment can
be retained for use in the information system modified for responding the problem
of AD 2000. |
| (3) |
In the fields where large amount of information has to be handled
with high speed and high reliability, such as POS data, finance, distribution
systems, etc., it has been customary to have to install expensive and large capacity
RAID's as back-up machines with double or triple investments, but the replacement
with this equipment produces remarkable cost savings. |
| [End] |
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