Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum Message Board

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Technology Stocks : Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum

WDC 178.76

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To: Stitch who wrote (3480)	6/3/1998 1:50:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Read Replies (1) of 9256

Just out of curiousity, I didn't see any comment on Komag's discussion of what they are selling and sampling. I thought these 2 paragraphs were interesting. They are shipping 3.4 gig platters now. Is this behind the curve? Also, their announcement of sampling 7.5 gig platters for GMR. Where does this put them with the competition? Is there anything we can learn here about a new customer? 7.5 gig per platter. That means under 10 gig drives will be low end next year? Again, Komag is on the rack, so these statements are probably not showing the best of the best. Why are these capacity points not enough to make profits? Regards, Mark From the Komag press release. "Capital expenditures in the first half of 1998 largely reflect the costs to implement advancements in our substrate and sputtering process technologies. Customer feedback on our new product offerings that incorporate these new technologies has been very favorable. We recently began shipment of next-generation disks that store 3.4 gigabytes (GB) of data on a 3-1/2 inch disk, our second product offering using epitaxial sputtering technology on the company's upgraded in-line sputtering machines. Importantly, our new epitaxial products are entering volume production at the highest introductory yield level achieved at Komag during the past two years. Additionally, our customers are obtaining high drive assembly yields with these new products," said Johnson. "We were recently selected to supply advanced disk media to the industry's first 3-1/2 inch giant magnetoresistive (GMR) disk drive program. This GMR media program is scheduled to enter volume production in the second half of 1998. Using our new substrate and epitaxial sputtering technologies, Komag's advanced product development team has also demonstrated the capability to manufacture 3-1/2 inch disks that can store 7.5 GB of data with GMR heads," said Johnson.

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