ISO APPROVES OPTICAL DISC TEST
STANDARDS FOR ARCHIVAL GRADE MEDIA

Global Standard for Optical Media Suitable for
Reliable Long-Term Storage of
Important Documents, Images and Data

CUPERTINO, Calif. and GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, Feb. 4, 2008 - The Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA) and Ecma International announced today that the International Standards Organization (ISO) has approved ISO/IEC 10995, a global standard for optical media archive life testing for recordable and rewritable DVDs. The standard will enable the optical storage industry to offer reliable archival-grade optical discs to help end-users select the media life expectancy best suited to their application requirements.

Approval of the new standard is the culmination of joint development efforts by OSTA and ECMA to define standard procedures for media archive life testing and classification, and then fast track the archival-grade optical disc testing specification through the ISO process.

OSTA established the Optical Disc Archive Testing (ODAT) Committee in 2005 to enable a broad team of industry experts, including global manufacturers of 120mm optical media and drives, as well as university and government participants, to define the test methodology.  In 2006, OSTA and ECMA agreed to work together to fast track the test methodology, initially approved as ECMA-379, through the ISO process. 
 
“Optical discs are an excellent archival medium for secure, removable, portable storage of important photos and documents,” said David Bunzel, President of the Optical Storage Technology Association. “Approval of this global standard is an important milestone in our goal to enable end users to more easily identify and select archival-grade optical media, and we encourage industry-wide implementation of this standard to assist them in their purchase decisions.”
“Ecma is pleased to have had the opportunity to fast-track the finalization and approval of this standard, which is designed to assist the market in clarifying differences in optical media quality,” said Istvan Sebestyen, Ecma Secretary General.  “Our TC31 committee was chartered in the 1980s to develop optical disc and disc cartridge standards, and has been involved with virtually all of the CD and DVD read only and recordable/rewritable standards.  This experience contributed to our ability to finalize this media archival life test in a relatively short time.”

About the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA)
The Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA) was incorporated as an international trade association in 1992 to promote the use of recordable optical technologies and products.  The organization's membership includes optical product manufacturers and resellers from three continents, representing more than 85 percent of worldwide writable optical product shipments.  They work to shape the future of the industry through regular meetings of DVD Compatibility, Commercial Optical Storage Applications (COSA), MPV, ODAT and UDF committees. Interested companies worldwide are invited to join the organization and participate in its programs by contacting an OSTA representative at (408) 253-3695, by fax at (408) 253-9938, or by addressing its Web site at http://www.osta.org.

About Ecma International
Since its inception in 1961, Ecma International (Ecma) has developed standards for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Consumer Electronics (CE). Ecma is a non-profit industry association of technology developers, vendors and users. Experts from industry and other organizations work together at Ecma to develop standards. Ecma submits its work for approval as ISO, IEC, ISO/IEC and ETSI standards and is a main practitioner of “fast tracking” of specifications through the standardisation process in International Standards Organisations (ISOs) such as the ISO and the IEC. Publications can be downloaded free of charge from http://www.ecma-international.org/.

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