This is interesting! Is Western Digital in Replay?
westerndigital.com
IRVINE, Calif. - Sept. 8, 1999 - Western Digital Corporation (NYSE:WDC) today
announced a new family of hard drives geared specifically to the home entertainment
market for use in digital video recorders, set-top boxes, home servers, audio/video juke
boxes, television receivers and other consumer products. Available this month, the WD
Performer line of hard drives is designed to provide the features most important to the
home entertainment user -- a steady flow of data, quiet operation, and the ability to handle
multiple streams of data for simultaneous viewing and recording.
"We appreciate Western Digital's focus on the market, as the reduction of acoustic noise
in hard drives is critical for their use in a home entertainment application," said Dan Levin,
vice president of engineering for Replay Networks Inc. "Western Digital's new
WhisperDriveTM technology dramatically reduces the noise level for use in a quiet home
environment."
The WD Performer features 9.1 GB per platter and is available in 27.2 GB, 18.1 GB, 13.6 GB,
and 9.1 GB capacities. The new WD Performer 27.2 GB hard drive provides the user with
over 25 hours of standard MPEG video storage or over 500 hours of CD-quality MP3
audio.
By efficiently handling multiple A/V data streams, the WD Performer features can support
simultaneous recording and playback. This enables the user to "pause" a live TV
program, and do something else - like answer the phone, and resume viewing without
missing any programming. The adaptive cache is designed to handle large block
sequential transfers for uninterrupted viewing of video data.
WD Performer hard drives incorporate Western Digital's WhisperDrive acoustics
technology for quiet operation. This feature dramatically reduces noise, making WD
Performer more compatible with use in a quiet home environment. Testing in Western
Digital's exclusive Fit LabTM found the new WhisperDrive feature to reduce sound
power acoustics by approximately 50% in commonly used seek operations.
The 3-platter WD Performer hard drives feature high areal density with 9.1 GB per platter
capacity to serve the demand of capacity-intensive audio and video applications.
"The WD Performer line of hard drives balance speed, acoustics, power and data integrity
for today's mainstream home entertainment applications," said Charlie Leeson, vice
president of sales and marketing for Western Digital's audio/video solutions line of
business. "These hard drives assist the user in changing the way they use home
entertainment, making it much more convenient for our fast-changing lifestyles."
The WD Performer line of hard drives features the Ultra ATA/66 interface and utilizes
giant magneto-resistive (GMR) head technology. The new home entertainment line also
incorporates Western Digital's Data LifeguardTM feature that protects end-user data by
automatically detecting, isolating, and repairing possible problem areas on the hard drive
before data loss can occur, significantly enhancing product reliability.
Western Digital was the first hard drive manufacturer to bring Ultra ATA/66 hard drives
to market, as well as to bring data integrity features to the hard drive with Data Lifeguard.
Evaluation units of the WD Performer hard drive are available now, with volume
production commencing later this month.
Western Digital Corporation is a leader in information storage products and services. The
company designs and manufactures hard drives for personal and enterprise-wide
computing, and markets them to leading systems manufacturers and selected resellers
under the Western Digital brand name. The company was founded in 1970 and has long
been noted for its storage and end-market systems-level design knowledge. The
company's home page can be found at westerndigital.com.
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Western Digital is a registered trademark and WD Performer, WhisperDrive, Fit Lab and
Data Lifeguard are trademarks of Western Digital Corporation. All other brand and
product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies.
Editors Note: Product photography is available at |
