Top Of The News - Hardware:

Leaders Of The $25 B HDD Industry To Meet At DISKCON USA

The International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association, IDEMA, announced that leaders of the HDD industry will meet at DISKCON USA, September 18-19, in San Jose, California to discuss advances to technology and the industry. These meetings represent an important part of IDEMA's new strategy to help the HDD industry meet the needs of a rapidly evolving market for data storage.

The CEO Kickoff, launching the DISKCON USA 2002 Trade Show and Technical Conference, features Bill Watkins of Seagate, Mike Cannon of Maxtor, Matt Massengill of Western Digital, Doug Grose of IBM, Ichiro Komura of Fujitsu, Wayne Fortun of Hutchinson Technology, Ed Braun of Veeco, and John Dean of Salomon Smith Barney in a panel discussion on the HDD industry and IDEMA's future role. Part of the session will cover IDEMA's new focus, which places a stronger emphasis on the HDD companies. Bill Watkins, president and COO of Seagate Technology, notes that IDEMA's new focus will place "a greater emphasis on drive suppliers and their customers, while expanding its services for the supply infrastructure."

Another feature of the DISKCON program will be a CTO "summit" to be hosted by IDEMA to explore the potential of advancing pre-competitive technology within the HDD industry. Tom Porter from Seagate, Hossein Moghadam from Western Digital, Pantelis Alexopoulos of Maxtor, John Best of IBM, and a total of more than 20 of the industry's top technology executives from HDD companies, component firms, and equipment suppliers will attend. They will be available to meet attendees before and after their meeting.

About DISKCON

DISKCON USA 2002 is the largest assemblage of exhibitors with products and technologies designed specifically for the HDD industry. Key technologies and equipment that foster this industry's meteoric improvement in areal density and performance are first seen at DISKCON. The exhibition and Technical Conference will be held at the San Jose Convention Center.

About IDEMA

The International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association (IDEMA) is an international not-for-profit trade association that represents the $22 billion HDD industry and its infrastructure. Founded in 1986, IDEMA provides more than 500 corporate and individual members worldwide with trade shows, technical conferences, symposia, education classes, networking events, and an active international standards program. www.idema.org.

Contact: Mark Geenen, IDEMA, 408-330-8101, mgeenen@idema.org.