If its Comdex/Fall time, it’s open season for new disk drives, and Digital Equipment Corp is going one better, entering the OEM market for the first time in the wake of Hewlett-Packard Co and IBM Corp with a commitment to build OEM sales to the point where they account for half its total disk business. Its first two offerings – both with SCSI-2 interfaces, are the DSP 5200, a 5.25 drive storing a formatted 2Gb, and the DSP 3080, a 3.5 drive storing 852Mb. The 5200 has an average seek time of 12mS, a minimum seek of less than 3mS and transfers at up to 2.2M-bytes per second. It is made in Kaufheuren, Germany, costs $3,800 in evaluation quantities and is out now in volume. The 3080 has average access t*e of 10mS and the same transfer rate as the 5200, is made in Colorado Springs and costs $2,100 in evaluation quantities. Volume is planned within two months. The company has not named any customers for the drives, but says that it has been shipping out samples since June. a serious player in the OEM market is that it keeps suing many of its potential customers over alleged infringement of its interface technology, Costa Mesa, California-based Emulex Corp has had enough. It said yesterday that it had filed suit in federal court against DEC alleging, among other things, that it employs unfair business practices to eliminate competitive vendors in the market for add-on equipment compatible with its computers and networks. Seeking damages, treble damages and injunctive relief, Emulex said that its lawsuit is in counterclaim to the lawsuit filed by DEC on August 12 over alleged patent infringements.
