History 1999: EMC Invests in Optical Technology

EMC has made an undisclosed equity investment in Siros Technology.

This news may strike some as curious. Why would EMC, which has never manufactured a single storage hardware component, place its money in a start-up focused on future ultra-high density, high-performance optical technology?

“This investment demonstrates our view that Siros has great potential to influence the market with a new set of storage system solutions,” answers Dave Donatelli, EMC’s VP pf business development.

It seems conceivable that, assuming Siros succeeds in its projects, EMC would be the first to benefit, but this won’t happen tomorrow.

Siros’ first priority is VSAL (Very-Small-Aperture Laser), a miniature laser that could be fixed at the tip of an actuator, thus eliminating the need for bulky lenses. The technology behind the VSAL comes from Bell Labs, acquired from Lucent Technologies last April.

Siros is also working over the long term on a 3D technology designed for volumetric capacity gains.

The quality of its management team as well as the interest expressed by a firm as large as EMC are strong arguments in favor of Siros, which has raised $35 million to date.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 143 on December 1999 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.