HGST Highway to Helium

HGST Helium-Filled HDDs Rise to New Levels; Achieve Industry-Leading Milestone in Field Reliability

Driving Down Data Center TCO: The Value of HelioSeal Technology

With the amount of new data being created and replicated doubling every two years, data center architects have a lot to consider when planning for future growth. Capacity growth is only one piece of the equation. The additional power, cooling and floor space required to operate that extra storage is another, and can add up. Leveraging the inherent benefits of Helium, HGST’s HelioSeal technology delivers today’s lowest TCO for enterprise and cloud data centers through:

• Greater power efficiency – Disks spin more easily in a helium-filled environment, resulting in 23% lower operating power. The 8TB helium drives consume just 5.1 watts during idle operation, a 44% reduction in watts-per-TB compared to conventional 6TB air-based HDDs, creating greener data centers with reduced energy costs and carbon footprint.
• Leading storage density – Helium is essential to maintaining the required reliability for future generation drives beyond 8TB. Industry-leading 8TB capacity in a 3.5-inch HDD footprint, which are plug-and-play in virtually any data center environment, delivers 33% more storage capacity for mainstream applications than competitive 6TB offerings.
• Lower cooling requirements – HGST Helium-filled drives typically run 4˚–5˚C cooler, which lowers power and cooling costs and leads to better field reliability, allowing HGST to increase its MTBF specification for the He6 and He8 drives.
• Better weight-per-TB – Up to 38% lower weight-per-TB for improved environmental conditions in high-density deployments and allows for more storage capacity where building codes enforce floor loading limits.
• Environmental robustness – Use them virtually anywhere, including ambient air, free cooling data centers. Many air-filled drives use a breather filter leading to reliability problems when used in environments with high levels of carbon or dust, or in high altitudes. This problem does not exist with HelioSeal drives as they’re hermetically sealed.
• Value $/TB – Higher volume production for its second-generation 8TB HelioSeal HDD leads to lower cost to the market.

HGST is shipping its 6TB Ultrastar He6 and 8TB Ultrastar He8 helium-filled drives in volume today. HGST’s 10TB Helium HDDs with SMR are sampling with select customers. For more information, please visit:http://www.hgst.com.

Is Cramer Right?

Micron Technology: “My problem with Micron, along with Seagate andWestern Digital, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, is that they are PC related. PC means sell, sell, sell.”

HGST Helium Drive: Full IDC Whitepaper Here

 

Filling the cavity of an HDD with helium nearly eliminates the wind turbulence that disturbs the heads.   This gives HDD manufacturers design freedom to add more disks and heads to an HDD to reach a higher capacity without adversely affecting the drive’s reliability.

A sealed helium-filled drive cavity also significantly reduces the friction that occurs while disks are spinning inside the drive. Less power will be needed to operate a sealed helium-filled drive, and in the future, more disks could be added to the drive without adversely impacting power consumption.

HGST’s HelioSeal platform may be considered by some as unconventional. However, some HDD manufacturers already fill the drive cavity with helium temporarily during the HDD manufacturing process. Filling the drive cavity with helium temporarily is unexceptional. On the other hand, preventing helium from escaping from a disk drive over a prolonged period of time, over its entire useful life, is extraordinary.

Helium Taking HDDs to New Heights

Flash Memory Summit: August 13-15 Santa Clara Convention Center

See You At Flash Memory Summit

HGST to Acquire sTec: FULL PR TEXT HERE

HGST to Deepen SSD Capabilities and Expertise with sTec IP and Engineering Talent 

SAN JOSE and SANTA ANA, Calif., June 24, 2013 – Western Digital^® Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) and sTec, Inc. (NASDAQ: STEC) announced today that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which sTec, Inc., an early innovator in enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs), will be acquired by HGST, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Digital. sTec will be acquired for approximately $340 million in cash, which equates to $6.85 per share. This represents approximately $207 million in enterprise value, net of sTec’s cash as of March 31, 2013.

The pending acquisition augments HGST’s existing solid-state storage capabilities, accelerating its ability to expand its participation in the rapidly growing area of enterprise SSDs. HGST remains committed to its highly successful joint development program with Intel^® Corp. and will continue to deliver current and future SAS-based SSD products with Intel.

sTec has strong engineering talent and intellectual property that will complement HGST technical expertise and capabilities. HGST will continue to support existing sTec^® products and collaborate with its customers to understand their future requirements.

“Solid state storage in the enterprise will play an increasingly strategic role in the future of Western Digital,” said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer, Western Digital Corporation. “This acquisition is one more building block in our strategy to capitalize on the dramatic changes within the storage industry by investing in SSDs and other high-growth storage products.”

“This acquisition demonstrates HGST’s ongoing commitment to the rapidly growing enterprise SSD segment, where we already have a successful product line,” said Mike Cordano, president, HGST. “We are excited to welcome such a talented team of professionals to HGST, where their inventive spirit will be embraced and encouraged.”

“At this key point in the evolution of the storage industry, sTec is excited to consummate this transaction. It will be an important next step in proliferating many of the innovative products and technologies that sTec has been known for throughout its 23-year history and provides immediate value for our shareholders and a strong future for our employees and customers,” said Mark Moshayedi, president and chief executive officer, sTec. “This merger will enable our world-class engineering team and IP to continue to make a significant contribution to the high-performance enterprise SSD space that has long been sTec’s focus.”

The board of directors of sTec, on the unanimous recommendation of a special committee of independent directors of the board, has unanimously approved the merger agreement and has resolved to recommend that sTec shareholders approve the transaction at a sTec shareholders meeting to be held to approve the merger agreement and the merger. The directors and executive officers of sTec have entered into separate voting agreements under which they have agreed, subject to certain exceptions, to vote their respective shares in favor of the proposed transaction.

Wells Fargo Securities, LLC has acted as the financial advisor to Western Digital and BofA Merrill Lynch has acted as the financial advisor to sTec in connection with this transaction.

Closing of the acquisition, which is subject to customary conditions, is expected to occur in the third or fourth calendar quarter of 2013.