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  • WD Ships First 1 TB Mobile Hard Drive


    WD has announced a one terabyte mobile hard drive for mobile storage applications and notebooks – the industry’s highest-capacity available 2.5-inch drive

    The 333 GB-per-platter technology in the new WD Scorpio Blue SATA 2.5-inch hard is available in 1 TB capacity as well as a 750 GB.

    The launch came as WD announced Q4 Revenue of USD $1.9 Billion and Net Income of USD $196 Million.

    Both hard drives have a 12.5 mm form factor, which Jim Morris, senior vice president and general manager of client systems at WD, said is ideally suited for use in portable storage solutions.

    Other applications include select notebooks and small form factor desktop PCs, where quiet and cool operation are important. Both WD Scorpio Blue drives deliver high-performance with 3 gigabits per second (Gb/s) transfer rate.

    "The convergence of the growing mobile computing and digital media trends produces demand for desktop-like capacities in portable devices," he said.

    "Our new WD Scorpio Blue drives enable people to take even more of their digital collections with them wherever they go and, realising the value of their data, back up their notebooks on their My Passport drives."

    Morris said the WD Scorpio Blue hard drives offer high-performance, low power consumption and cool operation in portable applications.

    They are designed with WD features to be reliable and shock resistant while also delivering industry-leading capacity and performance.

  • WD Launches Dual-Drive Network Storage System


    WD has unveiled its newly redesigned My Book World Edition II dual- drive network storage system in capacities of up to 4 TB.

    The company said the double protection of two Mirrored (RAID 1) drives and continuous backup software, makes the storage system extra-safe for users to back up and store the data and digital media.

    The new dual-drive system joins the recently introduced My Book World Edition and is compatible with PC and Mac computers.

    According to a July 2008 report by research firm Parks Associates, the number of households worldwide with data networks will grow from around 170 million in 2008 to 240 million by year-end 2012.

    The firm also reports that the average broadband household will see its digital media storage need grow to nearly 900 GB by year-end 2012.

    In addition, consumers indicate that the most important feature for a network-attached storage (NAS) device is the amount of available storage.

    With its massive 4 TB capacity, WD is hoping the My Book World Edition II network storage system will serve this rapidly growing need for home data storage.

    The new network storage systems are available now in 2 TB and 4 TB capacities, MSRP with 4 TB is GBP £599.99 and 2 TB is GBP £369.99.

    The new My Book World Edition II network drive features:

    • Automatic, continuous backup for all the computers on your network;
    • Dual-drive system that mirrors valuable data for extra safe data
    • protection;
    • Centralised storage and sharing for all of your family’s digital
    • content;
    • Streaming to any connected PC, Mac or DLNA certified game console or
    • media player;
    • Easy remote access to all your data from anywhere, anytime;
    • Works seamlessly on networks with both Windows and Mac computers;
    • Ability to centralise and stream music collection to a Mac or Windows
    • PC using iTunes software;
    • USB 2.0 port to turn any USB drive into an instant network drive or
    • extra capacity for the My Book World Edition II;
    • Cooler, quieter, eco-friendly design with drives using WD GreenPower
    • Technology(tm) which run cooler, quieter and consume up to 33 percent less
    • power;
    • User serviceable;
    • Capacity gauge to see at a glance how much space is available on your
    • drive;
    • High-speed data transfer with Gigabit Ethernet; and,
    • 3-year limited warranty.

  • WD Adds 2TB Hard Drives As Demand Grows


    WD has expanded its WD AV-GP line of hard drives to include a 2 TB capacity, which it claims is the industry’s largest available drive to-date.

    The company said the move was in response to growing demand for higher capacity storage continues to increase due to large video applications, including high-definition video.

    Jim Welsh, senior vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups, said consumer electronics consumers require hard drives that consume less power, generate less heat and operate quietly.

    He said audio and video recording applications, such as DVRs, media servers, media centres and mainstream surveillance systems, often demand 24×7 operation from hard drives.

    "Our drives meet the demanding requirements of these markets including higher reliability, universal compatibility, low power consumption and the ability to simultaneously record multiple audio and/or high-definition video streams," he said.

    The WD AV-GP 2 TB hard drive (model WD20EVDS) is available now for USD $299.00.

  • WD Enters Solid-State Drive Market With Acquisition Of SiliconSystems


    Western Digital has completed a USD $65 million cash acquisition of leading solid-state drives supplier, SiliconSystems.

    SiliconSystems’ product portfolio includes solid-state drives with SATA, EIDE, PC Card, USB and CF interfaces in 2.5-inch, 1.8-inch, CF and other form factors.

    Since its inception in 2002, SiliconSystems has sold millions of SiliconDrive products to the network-communications, industrial, embedded-computing, medical, military and aerospace markets.

    These markets accounted for approximately one third of worldwide solid-state drive revenues in 2008.

    John Coyne, president and CEO of WD, said its worldwide infrastructure and technical and financial resources will enable further growth in SiliconSystems’ existing markets and customer relationships.

    He said SiliconSystems’ intellectual property and technical expertise will provide additional building blocks for future products to address emerging opportunities in WD’s existing markets.

    "The combination will be modestly accretive to revenue and margins as a result of SiliconSystems’ existing position as a trusted supplier to the well-established USD $400 million market for embedded solid-state drives," he said.

    "SiliconSystems’ intellectual property and technical expertise will significantly accelerate WD’s solid-state drive development programs for the netbook, client and enterprise markets, providing greater choice for our customers to satisfy all their storage requirements."

    Integration into WD begins immediately, with SiliconSystems now becoming known as the WD Solid-State Storage business unit, complementing WD’s existing Branded Products, Client Storage, Consumer Storage and Enterprise Storage business units.