History (1998): Start-Up Benchmark Tape Systems

Yet another start-up we’ve never heard of before now, Benchmark Tape Systems and yet another Boulder, CO-based enterprise, has just announced plans to develop tape drive products based on DLT technology and using tape heads produced by Read-Rite.

The company has licensed certain patents and technologies from Quantum. The underlying agreement includes the transfer to Benchmark of product designs, product hardware and software, manufacturing tools and manufacturing software.

In return, Quantum has a minority ownership position in the start-up.

We were unable to obtain any further details on Benchmark’s projects. If it seems that the current venture centers around production of a low-cost DLT drive.

The team behind the new company includes the celebrated Jesse Aweida, founder and former COB and president of StorageTek, Lew Frauenfelder, a veteran of STK, Aspen and Datasonix, and the former president of Intellistor and Fujitsu Computer of America.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 129 on October 1998 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.

Note: Quantum acquired Benchmark in 2002 for $56 million.