ATP FOCUSED PROGRAM:

                          Digital Data Storage

                   FY 1995 NIST Funding: $15 million
        Estimated Total FY 1995-2000 NIST Funding: $125 million

Potential for U.S. Economic Benefit.

    The nation's digital storage industry -- maker of the tapes, disks,
    and other gear that have become the archives and the retrieval tools
    of the information age -- achieved its world-leading status by
    doubling storage capacity about every three years. Now, with
    competitors matching that rate of progress and new storage- hungry
    services rolling onto the information highway, industry observers
    say regaining lost market shares and pulling away from the global
    pack will require an annual improvement rate of about 60 percent --
    or more than twice as fast as today's blistering pace.

    By fostering industrial alliances, the new ATP focused program on
    digital data storage aims to build the springboard for that kind of
    ambitious leap in technological capability and marketplace
    performance.  As the world goes digital -- storing mountains of
    textual, audio, graphical, and video information as 1's and 0's --
    opportunities are multiplying in business and consumer markets. For
    example, the visual communications market, which includes
    video-on-demand services and video server hardware, is growing at an
    annual rate of 40 percent and is projected by some to reach $2.5
    billion by 1996. Companies adept at incorporating new technologies
    will have a strategic advantage in existing and emerging markets.
    For the domestic industry as a whole, that advantage would advance
    efforts to establish U.S. formats as international standards, which
    would be a boon to exports.

    In helping U.S. industry to move to the head of the curve of
    technology development and application, the program also will better
    position U.S. companies to compete in consumer markets now dominated
    by soon-to- be-outdated analog storage products made by foreign
    manufacturers. In turn, a technologically advanced, globally
    competitive data storage industry will enhance the competitive
    prospects of computer manufacturers as well as the
    telecommunications, entertainment, and other important user
    industries.

Technology Challenge and Industry Commitment.

    The new focused program will concentrate on accomplishing six
    technical objectives, established on the basis of industry input
    received through white papers submitted by five individual companies
    and three collaborations representing more than 40 firms, which
    account for more than 90 percent of U.S. data storage industry
    revenues. Additional input was gathered through an ATP-sponsored
    workshop.

    >  Media: Push the ultimate limits of magnetic recording capacity by
       increasing storage densities to 10 billion to 100 billion bits
       per square inch (6.45 sq. cm.) for disks and to 1 trillion bytes per
       cubic inch (16.39 cu. cm.) for tapes; for electro-optical disks,
       develop new materials to increase storage density and improve
       performance.

    >  Heads: Develop technologies for high-performance magnetic
       recording heads that are vastly superior to today's state of the
       art, and significantly improve magneto-optical record and sense
       technologies.

    >  Tribology: Develop new lubricants and surface finishes, because,
       as the space between heads and media diminishes, separation
       cannot be assured, creating the potential for wear and increased
       error rates.

    >  Tracking: Develop reliable micropositioning devices for
       high-precision placement of sensing devices over data tracks to
       achieve high signal-to-noise rates.

    >  Channel electronics: Improve signal-processing electronics to
       achieve very low error rates.

    >  Software: Significantly advance the state of the art in data
       storage and retrieval software over the range extending from
       error detection and correction within storage units and disk
       controllers to management of menageries of data storage systems.

Significance of ATP Funds.

    In establishing a comprehensive set of technical goals far beyond
    the capabilities of individual firms or joint ventures, the ATP
    focused program will help companies and research organizations to
    pool their talents, expertise, and resources. Through collaborations
    that minimize risks and costs, the industry can make large strides
    in innovation that lead to markedly superior technologies beyond the
    capabilities of competitors. Because of today's stiff competition in
    markets for digital data storage products, U.S. firms must
    concentrate almost exclusively on rapid, but incremental,
    improvements to existing products, which are quickly matched or
    outdone by other companies. Research addressing longer term
    challenges is an acknowledged industry need, cited, for example, in
    separate technology roadmaps developed by the National Storage
    Industry Consortium and the Optoelectronics Industry Development
    Association. Both call for concerted efforts aimed at fundamentally
    new and better storage technologies -- the expected outcomes of the
    new ATP program.

    Advances in data storage technology are important to national
    security and to the missions of federal agencies, including some
    sponsoring research in the area. The projects are aligned closely
    with the missions of the funding agencies and, collectively, do not
    address the broad range of technology challenges and needs
    confronting the commercial data storage industry. In a recent survey
    of the electronics industry's technology needs and priorities,
    conducted as part of the government-industry National Electronics
    Manufacturing Initiative, mass data storage was singled out as one
    of the key electronic-component technologies warranting increased
    emphasis in federal R&D efforts.

    Shared efforts concentrating on early-stage needs and obstacles can
    reduce overall R&D costs and accelerate the U.S. digital data
    storage industry's progress toward developing technologies critical
    to ensuring that it will be a top performer in a worldwide market
    projected to grow tenfold, to $1 trillion, during the next decade.

For information about eligibility, how to apply, and cost-sharing
requirements, contact the Advanced Technology Program:

        (800)-ATP-FUND [(800)-287-3863]
        email: atp@micf.nist.gov
        fax: (301) 926-9524

        A430 Administration Building
        National Institute of Standards and Technology
        Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001

For technical information, contact:

        Tom Leedy, Program Manager
        (301) 975-2410
        e-mail: leedy@micf.nist.gov
        fax: (301) 926-9524

December 1994