Longmont, Colorado 2.5 Winchester pioneer PrairieTek Corp has licensed Alps Electric Co Ltd, Tokyo to manufacture some models of its drives in Japan, and the two will co-operate on future product and process developments. The move will enable PrairieTek to ramp up production to meet soaring demand from notebook computer manufacturers more quickly. Alps is making an unspecified equity investment in PrairieTek. The company has also added a single platter 21.4Mb drive that averages under 1.0W of power, has 23mS average seek time and weighs 6.4oz. It measures 2.8 by 4 by 0.6 including AT controller and features the company’s proprietary ramp head loading mechanism which automatically parks the heads off the medium when the drive is powered down. Volume is planned for the first quarter 1990; no price given.
