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

To: Pierre-X who wrote (7542)	11/12/1997 10:46:00 PM
From: Thomas George Warner	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11057

Pierre look at the technical comparisons for the enterprise 9.1G drivescompared to WDc's competition, and than tell me that WDC is technologically behind, less platters, less power consumption 9.4W vs 13W for the next lowest, fastest track to track seek time and highest areal density.: wdc.com What the reports have said is that WDC chose to hold off on MR head PRODUCTION due to their success with the old technology DD.

To: Pierre-X who wrote (7542)	11/12/1997 11:14:00 PM
From: John Wang	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11057

Pierre-X: <<I'm a little confused here by the use of "density" in this context. I could very well be mistaken but I thought density was a measure of bits per sq in?>> Density can be measured by bits per sq in or GB per platter. Higher bit per sq in will give you higher GB/platter. Heads and disk (media) are major portion of the material cost of a HDD. I don't exactly the cost for a disk plus two heads. It is probably in excess of $20. Someone that knows the cost can correct me. Therefore, if WD use 2 platters (4 heads) to make 4.2G HDD, and its competitor uses 4 platters (8 heads)to make the same HDD, other being equal, WD will have cost advantage of at least $40. That's a lot of money for desktop HDD products. The same comparion can be made for 9G enetrprise drives. WD uses 6, and other folks use 10. Who is better to survive the price erosion? WD probably uses RDRT, IBM and maybe APM for desktop MR heads. I don't know about disks. John