History (1990): HDD Maker IBM Also on OEM Market

Everyone knows that IBM is involved in the OEM market, it’s is not new, but never until now so obviously.

For example, an IBM booth entirely for OEM products (Winchester drives, tape drives, printers) had never been seen before last CeBIT in Hannover, Germany.

In the HDD segment, IBM’s offer covers 3.5-inch disks with capacities ranging from 20 to 320MB and a 5.25-inch 857MB disk. The WDL 320 (20MB formatted) and 330 (30MB) disk drives represent the start of a family of 3.5-inch one-inch high disk drives that are manufactured by IBM in Havant, UK.

They have been planned specifically for PS/2 microcomputers and were designed, developed and are also manufactured in Fujisawa, Japan.

The main customer is IBM Greenock in Scotland where they are incorporated into PS/2s but they are also sold to OEMs.

The WD 387/3158 series of 3.5-inch drives, from 60 to 160MB, are manufactured in Fujisawa. They use a dedicated head landing zone to which the actuator is automatically retracted and locked on power down.

The high-end 0661 model with 320MB formatted is found in AS/400, RS 6000 and PS/2 model 80 computers. It’s the same unit sold in OEM to Western Digital, Systems Industries and CMS. The drive was designed, developed and manufactured in Rochester, NY. It is also manufactured in the Havant plant. The main internal customer is IBM’s Greenock plant.

The 0681 is a high capacity 5.25-inch drive that is the result of an association in the UK between Havant and IBM’s development laboratory at Hursley. It is available in two models: 471 or 857MB formatted, also found on RS 6000 workstations. No OEM prices for all these disks have been revealed yet.

Let’s also mention that in Europe, an IBM center in Mainz, West Germany, is devoted to drive technology, 3990 disk drive control units are manufactured in Järfälla, Sweden, and 3380 and 3390 disk drives in Berlin, West Germany. IBM’s plant in Valencia, Spain, is in charge of 3480 and 3490 tape drives and control units.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠30, published on July 1990.