IBM Travelstar Disk Drives Extend Battery Life for Mobile Computer Users

SAN JOSE, CALIF., August 15, 1995 . . . IBM today announced Adaptive
Battery Life Extender*, a new disk-based power-management technology for
use in future models of its Travelstar family of 2.5-inch disk drives for
mobile computers. This new technology, implemented in a silicon chip,
reduces a drive's total power consumption by as much as 20 percent while
providing performance equal to or better than drives with conventional
power management technology. Disk drives with the new technology can
extend a mobile computer's battery life by up to 8 percent.

IBM expects to be the first in the industry to offer mobile-computer hard
drives capable of optimizing power consumption by continuously adapting to
the individual user's patterns of disk access commands. Developed at IBM's
Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California, the new technology has
the unique ability to toggle "intelligently" between two power-consumption
modes of operation to maximize the amount of power that can be saved.

Conventional power management relies only on preset timers to switch from
one power-consumption mode of operation to another, no matter how the
drive is actually being used. Drives with conventional power management
typically operate in one of four modes:

- "Active" mode, which uses full power, is operative while read/write
  operations are being carried out.

- "Idle" mode begins at the conclusion of read/write operations. In
  idle mode, disk drive electronics are powered off and the mechanism
  that keeps the recording head positioned over data on the disk
  tracks operates with reduced functionality.  A time delay is
  required for the drive to be powered up before the next read/write
  operation can begin.

- "Standby" mode, in which the spindle motor is stopped, is entered
  after a user-specified amount of idle time has elapsed.

- "Sleep" mode, the minimal power mode, is entered by specific
  command, and is designed for long periods (hours) of system
  inactivity.

Adaptive Battery Life Extender technology also uses "active," "standby" and
"sleep" modes, but employs a more sophisticated, two-stage "idle" mode and
intelligently manages the transition between these two stages.  They are:

- "Performance Idle" mode, in which electronic components remain
   powered and full track-following function is retained.  At the
   conclusion of a read/write operation, the Adaptive Battery Life
   Extender predicts whether a burst of read/write operations
   occurring within a short time frame is complete. If the Adaptive
   Battery Life Extender predicts the burst of operations is
   complete, it transitions to the Low Power idle mode.

- "Low-Power (LP) Idle" mode begins when the Adaptive Battery Life
   Extender determines that a burst of operations is complete and
   another one is not likely to occur for a matter of seconds.

Central to this new technology is the fact that most disk-drive read/write
operations occur in irregular bursts.  After observing various burst
patterns during applications typical of mobile computer users, the IBM
Almaden scientists developed a new mathematical technique that predicts
when most bursts will end.  Using such predictions, IBM's Adaptive Battery
Life Extender technology typically sets the drive to the LP Idle mode
sooner than those using fixed-time settings.

"Adaptive Battery Life Extender technology brings closer to reality the
prospect of making mobile computers function like their desktop
equivalents," said Susan Rosenberg, director of mobile storage systems for
the IBM Storage Products Company, a unit of the Storage Systems Division. 
"Users will be able to operate their computers significantly longer
between recharges and they'll benefit from increased drive responsiveness
as well.  This is another example of how we are leveraging IBM's
technological leadership to help bring leading-edge mobile computers to
market."

IBM intends to introduce models of its Travelstar disk drives that include
Adaptive Battery Life Extender technology in the fourth quarter of 1995. 
These drives will be made available for use in IBM mobile computers as
well as for use in the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) marketplace.

IBM news releases are available on the Internet, via the IBM Home Page at
http://www.ibm.com.  The IBM Storage Home Page can be found at
http://www.storage.ibm.com/storage.

The IBM Fax Information Service allows you to receive facsimiles of prior
IBM product press releases.  Dial 1-800-IBM-4FAX and enter "99" at the
voice menu.
 
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