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Technology Stocks : Western Digital (WDC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: fiberman who wrote (10387)	6/22/1999 12:41:00 PM
From: bberthot	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11057

Tuesday June 22, 8:06 am Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: Western Digital Corporation Western Digital in Volume Production With WD Caviar 6.8 GB Per Platter 5400 RPM Hard Drive Company Completing Qualification with Major OEMs: Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard Home Products Division, Micron, and NEC IRVINE, Calif., June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC - news) today announced that the company is in or completing qualification of its WD Caviar 6.8 GB per platter 5400 RPM hard drives at the following PC manufacturers: Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard Home Products Division, Micron, and NEC. ''This new product is being aggressively ramped to volume production to meet our customers' need for higher performance in the mainstream desktop market,'' said Matt Massengill, executive vice president and general manager for Western Digital's Drive Products Division. ''This hard drive platform is WD's third generation GMR (giant magnetoresistive) head product achieving both time-to-market as well as true market-tested experience with the new head technology.'' The new WD Caviar 6.8 GB per platter hard drive is available in capacities ranging from 6.4 to 20.5 GB. The WD Caviar 6.8 GB per platter hard drives have a performance boost up to 30% faster than previous generation hard drives. Plus, with the availability of this high-level capacity, a user can store as much as 20 hours of MPEG-2 video, which is the equivalent of 10 feature films. The hard drive features a robust new electronics architecture that integrates the disk controller, static RAM memory and a new, faster microprocessor onto a single chip for improved reliability due to the lower component count. The combined performance of the controller and the microprocessor results in an increased data transfer rate that provides faster access to data in a wide variety of end user applications. The WD Caviar 20.5 GB hard drive has a 2 MB buffer and an average seek time of 9.5 ms. The new hard drive supports the Ultra ATA/66 interface. ''Compaq supports Western Digital's efforts to provide customers with higher levels of data reliability,'' said Naila Seif, Director of Product Marketing in Commercial Desktops at Compaq. ''We led the action to provide additional data integrity to the consumer with both the S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology), and DPS (Drive Protection System) programs. Western Digital has been key to not only utilizing these two Compaq-initiated programs, but extending them for even greater value and data reliability.'' Western Digital was the first in the industry to implement data protection features in its hard drives with Data Lifeguard, an exclusive core set of data reliability features. Data Lifeguard's embedded features automatically detect, isolate and repair problem areas on the hard drive before possible data loss can occur. End user intervention is not required and there is no impact on performance as these embedded Data Lifeguard features operate. Standard technology includes both S.M.A.R.T and DPS, both pioneered by Compaq Computer, to help enable intelligent hard drive self-diagnosis. Western Digital has expanded the Data Lifeguard data reliability features to include drive error diagnostics and installation utilities. The diagnostics utility determines if the hard drive is the source of operation problems and attempts to restore the hard drive to a defect-free status. A new Data Lifeguard feature debuted in the WD Caviar 6.8 GB per platter platform is the protective head parking feature that extends the existing auto park feature that automatically parks the heads when the hard drive is idle. The new advanced feature extends the technology by implementing a second level of defense by safely parking the heads in the rare event that other drive components lose functionality, ensuring the safety of data in the event of system failure. 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. This release contains forward looking statements, including statements relating to the time qualification of the 6.8 GB per platter hard drive will be completed and volume production will begin, production ramp of the new products, the transition to GMR heads, and reliability of the new products. These forward looking statements are based on current management expectations, and actual results may differ materially as a result of several factors, including: uncertainties related to the development and introduction of products; manufacturing ramp to volume and customer acceptance; the highly competitive nature of the hard drive industry and the rapid technological change within the industry; the uncertainty of patent and proprietary technology protection and the risks associated with litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights; uncertainties regarding certification by the companies which own or control the operating systems; the importance of retention and attraction of key technical and other employees; general economic and business conditions; and other factors discussed in Western Digital's recent SEC filings. Western Digital undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of the statements. Western Digital is a registered trademark. WD Caviar, WD Expert and Data Lifeguard are trademarks of Western Digital Corporation. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies. Western Digital is a registered trademark of Western Digital Corporation. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies. SOURCE: Western Digital Corporation