Conner Peripherals Inc, Fremont, California 3.5 Winchester manufacturer in which Compaq Computer Corp is a substantial minority investor, is teaming up with one of Compaq’s arch rivals, Ing C Olivetti SpA, to manufacture disk drives in Europe. The new Conner Peripheral Europe is to be 51%-owned by Olivetti, 49% by Conner, and will be capitalised at $5m. It expects to start operations in July and will manufacture high performance drives with access times of under 30mS. Olivetti has its own disk drive manufacturing operations in Italy and is likely to contribute some technology as well as cash to the new business. Among the drives it is likely to manufacture is a super-low-power 3.5 drive for use in lap-top computers, due to be announced by Conner this week. The 20Mb CP-3022 will draw only 2W of power the same as a floppy – against a typical 7W to 8W. It will have average access time of 27mS and will be just 1 high, and is seen by Conner as greatly enhancing the attractions of laptops against transportables. Computer Systems News speculates that it may as a result herald Compaq’s entry into the laptop market for the first time. The CP-3022 is available now in OEM quantities and will sell for $400 or so.
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