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Geneva, 6 September 2004:
Geneva, Switzerland and Melbourn, UK – 6 September,
2004 – Ecma International, the industry association
dedicated to the standardisation of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) systems and Plasmon (LSE: PLM), the market
leader for professional data archival solutions, today jointly
announced that the International Organisation for Standardisation
(ISO) and International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC)
officially adopted ECMA-350, the UDO™ (Ultra Density
Optical) Media Format Standard published last December.
The new certified standard, which is known as ISO/IEC 17345,
specifies the mechanical, physical and optical characteristics
of Rewritable and true Write Once, 30GB UDO media. UDO is
the only blue laser optical storage format to receive ISO/IEC
approval, marking another major milestone in the acceptance
of UDO as an industry recognised technology standard.
ISO/IEC 17345 progressed from Draft International Standard
(DIS) to International Standard (IS) in just five months.
Standard ECMA-350, approved in December 2003 by the Ecma
General Assembly, was submitted to ISO/IEC in February 2004
for adoption under the “Fast-Track” procedure.
The ballot concluded in July 2004 and the voting results
revealed that the UDO standard was approved unanimously
by all members in the 28 countries represented.
“The adoption by ISO/IEC of the UDO standard first
published by Ecma International is another example of market-driven
standardisation which is highly relevant for the users of
products based on international high-quality standards.
Plasmon is to be congratulated on developing the new world
standard in optical disk technology for the data storage
market” said Jan van den Beld, Secretary General of
Ecma International.
“We are delighted that ISO/IEC has recognised UDO
as an official international standard,” said
Dr. Robert Longman, Engineering Director at Plasmon. “Having
a fully documented and open international standard is particularly
significant since companies are using UDO to archive digital
records for many years. The ISO standard provides assurance
for those companies investing in the technology and defines
a frame for backward compatible future UDO generations offering
60GB and 120GB capacities.” He continues, “Ecma
International, ISO and IEC are three of the world’s
most trusted technical standards organisations so we are
confident that the release of ISO/IEC 17345 will be very
well received by the storage industry”.
Ecma Standard 350 was developed by TC31, the Ecma Technical
Committee created in 1984 for the standardisation of optical
disks and optical disk cartridges. Technical Committee TC31
benefits from particularly broad industry representation,
with members from companies such as Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard,
Hitachi, IBM, JVC, Le Carvennec Consultants, Mitsubishi,
NEC, Panasonic/Matsushita, Philips, Pioneer, Plasmon, Ricoh,
Samsung, Sony and Toshiba. ECMA-350 was published in December
2003 and includes all technical contents for the UDO Media
Format Standard. It can be downloaded free of charge in
Acrobat PDF from the Ecma website (http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/ECMA-350.pdf).
ISO/IEC 17345 will be published in autumn 2004 and the
publication will be made available online at that time.
About UDO
Designed for organisations seeking secure retention
of important information, UDO succeeds
5.25 inch MO (Magneto Optical) technology as the new professional
optical storage standard. UDO breaks the mould for optical
storage solutions with increased storage capacity and dramatically
lower archival storage costs.
UDO features blue lasers for recording rather than the
red lasers used in previous optical drives such as MO and
DVD. Blue lasers achieve far greater data densities, resulting
in dramatically higher media capacities. First generation
UDO products have a capacity of 30GB, with a roadmap extending
to 120GB by the third generation. The densities achieved
through blue lasers allow UDO to be priced at $2.00/GB in
the first generation, one-fifth the price of MO media.
UDO media is packaged in an ISO standard 5.25 inch cartridge,
allowing UDO and MO media to be supported in the same libraries,
and reducing the cost of existing media migration. Future
UDO drives will be backward read-compatible, minimising
future media migration expense.
The Phase Change recording technology used by UDO is field-proven
and highly stable. With absolute authenticity and a media
life of 50+ years, UDO meets the most demanding requirements
of regulatory agencies and other authorities for the secure,
long-term storage of information.
More information about UDO can be found on www.udo.com
or on the Plasmon website www.plasmon.com/udo.
About Ecma International
Since its inception in 1961, Ecma International (Ecma) has
developed standards for information and communication technology
(ICT) and consumer electronics (CE). Ecma is a not-for-profit
industry association of technology developers, vendors and
users. Industry and other experts work together in Ecma
to complete standards. Ecma submits the approved work for
approval as ISO, ISO/IEC and ETSI standards.
Ecma is the inventor and main practitioner of "fast
tracking" of specifications through the standardisation
process in Global Standards Bodies like the ISO. In ISO/IEC
JTC 1, Ecma has the status of an A-liaison, equivalent to
a national body without voting rights. Since the start of
fast-tracking in 1987, over 200 (more than 80%) of the total
number of proposals for fast-track processing have come
from Ecma International, and have been approved.
Main areas of standardisation include: Scripting and programming
languages; Optical and Magnetic storage media; High speed
interconnects; Universal 3D format; Safety, Environmental,
Acoustical and Electromagnetic product attributes; Enterprise
and Proximity Communication and Networking; and File and
Volume structures. Publications can be downloaded free of
charge from http://www.ecma-international.org.
About Plasmon
Plasmon is a leader in professional data storage solutions,
providing the industry’s most comprehensive line of
optical drives and media, optical and tape libraries, and
NAS / SAN storage networking solutions. Customers include
corporations, institutions and government agencies worldwide
and are backed by a global service and support network.
Founded in 1985, Plasmon is listed on the London Stock Exchange,
(LSE: PLM), and had fiscal year 2004 sales revenues of $90
million. Worldwide headquarters are in Cambridge, United
Kingdom, with manufacturing facilities in Colorado, USA
and Cork, Ireland. Plasmon has regional sales offices throughout
Europe and North America. For more information, visit www.plasmon.co.uk
or www.plasmon.com.
More information:
Plasmon Press Contact:
Sally Fisher
Plasmon Data Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1763 262963
sfisher@plasmon.co.uk
Louise Chaundy / Dan Purvis
Goode International Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1491 873323
dan.purvis@goode.co.uk
Plasmon and UDO are registered trademarks of Plasmon Plc.
Copyright 2004
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