Drexler Technology Corp, Mountain View, California has signed a licence upgrade agreement with an unnamed Japanese company, giving Drexler a net front-end payment of $950,000 plus long-term royalties: in exchange, Drexler grants a non-exclusive licence to manufacture read-write equipment that can use LaserCard optical memory cards made by Drexler; the LaserCard resembles a conventional credit card but is covered with a tape material that can store up to 1,000 pages of data using optical recording technology.