By fostering industrial alliances, the new ATP focused program on digital data storage aims to build the springboard for that kind of ambitious leap in technological capability and marketplace performance. As the world goes digital -- storing mountains of textual, audio, graphical, and video information as 1's and 0's -- opportunities are multiplying in business and consumer markets. For example, the visual communications market, which includes video-on-demand services and video server hardware, is growing at an annual rate of 40 percent and is projected by some to reach $2.5 billion by 1996. Companies adept at incorporating new technologies will have a strategic advantage in existing and emerging markets. For the domestic industry as a whole, that advantage would advance efforts to establish U.S. formats as international standards, which would be a boon to exports.

In helping U.S. industry to move to the head of the curve of technology development and application, the program also will better position U.S. companies to compete in consumer markets now dominated by soon-to- be-outdated analog storage products made by foreign manufacturers. In turn, a technologically advanced, globally competitive data storage industry will enhance the competitive prospects of computer manufacturers as well as the telecommunications, entertainment, and other important user industries.

• Media: Push the ultimate limits of magnetic recording capacity by increasing storage densities to 10 billion to 100 billion bits per square inch (6.45 sq. cm.) for disks and to 1 trillion bytes per cubic inch (16.39 cu. cm.) for tapes; for electro-optical disks, develop new materials to increase storage density and improve performance.

• Heads: Develop technologies for high-performance magnetic recording heads that are vastly superior to today's state of the art, and significantly improve magneto-optical record and sense technologies.

• Tribology: Develop new lubricants and surface finishes, because, as the space between heads and media diminishes, separation cannot be assured, creating the potential for wear and increased error rates.

• Tracking: Develop reliable micropositioning devices for high-precision placement of sensing devices over data tracks to achieve high signal-to-noise rates.

• Channel electronics: Improve signal-processing electronics to achieve very low error rates.

• Software: Significantly advance the state of the art in data storage and retrieval software over the range extending from error detection and correction within storage units and disk controllers to management of menageries of data storage systems.

Advances in data storage technology are important to national security and to the missions of federal agencies, including some sponsoring research in the area. The projects are aligned closely with the missions of the funding agencies and, collectively, do not address the broad range of technology challenges and needs confronting the commercial data storage industry. In a recent survey of the electronics industry's technology needs and priorities, conducted as part of the government-industry National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, mass data storage was singled out as one of the key electronic-component technologies warranting increased emphasis in federal R&D efforts.

Shared efforts concentrating on early-stage needs and obstacles can reduce overall R&D costs and accelerate the U.S. digital data storage industry's progress toward developing technologies critical to ensuring that it will be a top performer in a worldwide market projected to grow tenfold, to $1 trillion, during the next decade.