SAN JOSE, CA, July 5, 1994 - Accurite Technologies Inc. today announced the release of its PCMCIA-based family of floppy storage devices, along with its PassportCard™ controller. Release 2 compatible, the PassportCard links IBM compatible computers with PCMCIA card slots to peripherals with flexible disk drive type interfaces. These interfaces are found not only in floppy disk drives but in some tape drives as well. Compactly designed, the PassportCard and the Travel Floppy™ storage subsystem bring to the mobile computing environment a quick and economical means of moving data to or from diskette through the PCMCIA slot.

The PassportCard features data transfer rates up to 1 Mb per second and meets the PCMCIA release 2.10 specification with a Type II physical format. Software drivers provided with the PassportCard allow full support of standard IBM type flexible disk drive and diskette format configurations including 3.5" 720K, 1.44 Mb and 2.88Mb, as well as 5.25" 360K and 1.2 Mb. Driver compatibility includes both PCMCIA Socket Services and Card Services supplied by Award Software, Phoenix Technologies, Quadtel and SystemSoft (CardSoft) as well as other compatible private label Card and Socket Services. In its minimum configuration, the PassportCard and drivers are compatible with the Socket Services incorporated into the Hewlett Packard 100LX family of palmtop computers. Future drivers will be available from Accurite to support non-IBM compatible, PCMCIA-equipped systems. The PassportCard is included in the Travel Floppy storage subsystem, but is also available separately to OEMs and other customers wishing to provide their own custom peripheral solutions.

Also announced by Accurite, the Travel Floppy storage subsystem is a very compact and lightweight external drive subsystem which includes a slim cable for connecting the 3.5" 1.44 Mb drive directly to the PassportCard. As a low-power floppy solution, the Travel Floppy can be powered through the PCMCIA slot of many notebooks. Or, for palmtop computers and similar low power devices, a small, wall-type power adaptor is also supplied with the package. The compact, portable footprint of the Travel Floppy fits just as easily in a briefcase as on a desktop, or in any other mobile computing environment.

The PassportCard controller allows users to hot swap the Travel Floppy, so that users can move files to or from a floppy on the fly without interrupting their work in progress or requiring exiting the software in use. Current solutions available are more costly, cumbersome and restrictive. Some require that a user physically connect a cable from their mobile computer to a desktop similarly equipped with communications software to download or upload data. Floppy drive solutions utilizing serial or parallel ports, are generally bulkier and more costly and require that the portable computer include these communications ports and compatible I/O connectors. Additionally, serial and parallel floppy drive subsystems generally cannot be connected on the fly and usually involve work interruption, exiting a program, powering the system down and back up in the physical drive connection process. Alternatively, users find that saving data to PCMCIA memory cards is expensive, and is limited by the size of data that can be handled. Further, memory cards are not suitable for archival purposes or common data exchange as they are not compatible with the large installed base of desktop computers which do not have PCMCIA slots. As another option, some portable computers utilize infrared (IR) technology to transfer data but are limited to communicating only with another IR-equipped desktop which often may not be readily available when needed.

The PassportCard and the Travel Floppy subsystem find their niche in the compact computer market, particularly with the growing popularity of diskless palmtop, notebook and subnotebook computers becoming available which lack a ready, portable and unencumbered means of moving information to or from these systems. Manufacturers, that have designed systems too small to be configured with a floppy drive, now can provide customers with the convenience and flexibility of the floppy drive as an option.

Accurite Technologies Inc. is a leading manufacturer of floppy drive-related products with patented technologies evolved over two decades. Accurite's products are used by floppy drive and head manufacturers, computer system integrators and manufacturers, computer service and repair organizations, as well as numerous end users throughout the world.

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