Qualstar Develops Data Storage Product With Sony

Qualstar Corp. announced Thursday it has developed a prototype enterprise class library product with Sony Imaging Products & Solutions Inc. Sony Imaging, a subsidiary of Sony Corp., in Tokyo, will display the prototype at the SC19 high performance computing, networking and storage conference and exhibition this month in Denver. Qualstar’s library product leverages the Camarillo manufacturer’s expertise in designing efficient robotic-based storage systems. The prototype utilizes Sony’s optical disc archive third generation technology and can scale from 4.7 petabytes to 50 petabytes, depending on the usage need. “We are delighted with the progress of this project,” said Qualstar Chief Executive Steven Bronson in a statement. “We believe the jointly developed product will serve the needs of our valued customers and open new markets for optical devices.” Today’s supercomputing environments need high capacity, scalable data storage products to archive data for a longer period of time, said Arun Vaishampayan, vice president of global sales. “Sony’s Optical Disc Archive Generation 3 storage platform fulfills the needed requirements of this market,” Vaishampayan said in a statement. Shares in Qualstar (QBAK) closed up 1 cent, or a fraction of a percent, to $5.51 on the Nasdaq.