SanDisk Brings Fast Flash Memory Technology to the World’s
Thinnest 2.5-inch Solid State Hybrid Drives from WD
WD®,
a Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) company, and SanDisk
Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK),
a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced that
the two companies are collaborating to introduce hybrid storage devices
that feature best-in-class flash memory technology from SanDisk and
best-in-class hard drive technology from WD.
SanDisk is supplying a SanDisk iSSD™ storage device for the WD Black™
solid state hybrid drive (SSHD), the world’s thinnest 2.5-inch SSHD
solution, which utilizes both WD proprietary hybrid technology and
industry standard SATA IO technology. The SanDisk iSSD brings an elegant
balance of performance, low power consumption, cost, reliability, and a
compact form factor to this SSHD, which will offer ample storage to meet
consumers’ growing appetite for digital content as well as flash-enabled
speed, data throughput and responsiveness – all within ultra-slim form
factors.
“I am delighted for SanDisk to team up with WD on these exciting new
hybrid products,” said Kevin Conley, senior vice president and general
manager of client storage solutions at SanDisk. “By combining SanDisk’s
unparalleled flash memory expertise and technology with the hard drive
know-how of WD, WD Black SSHDs offer outstanding hard drive-like
capacity, and the slim form factor and the level of performance that you
will only get with flash memory solutions.”
“Working with SanDisk, WD realized our vision for products that combine
the best of both technologies,” said Matt Rutledge, vice president of
client computing at WD. “WD’s SSHDs are a significant achievement in the
continuing SSHD/flash storage revolution.”
About WD Black Solid State Hybrid Drives
WD Black SSHDs use WD hybrid technology that blends responsive,
intelligent flash memory technology from SanDisk with high capacity hard
drives from WD. This powerful combination greatly improves the PC user
experience, enabling both high capacity and a higher level of
performance than traditional hard disk drives, including increased
speed, instant-on and faster application launching.
With device volume being a key concern for PC manufacturers who want to
design slimmer devices, the WD Black SSHDs are designed to accommodate
integration into the market’s thinnest notebooks. The WD Black 5mm SSHD
offers 500GB1 of capacity, while utilizing almost 50 percent
less volume than current standard notebook hard drives (which are
approximately 9.5mm). The low-profile of the solid state hybrid drive is
complemented by the extremely small form factor of the SanDisk iSSD,
which is built on 19 nanometer (nm) process technology, the world's
smallest and most advanced semiconductor manufacturing process. The WD
Black 5mm SSHDs are shipping to OEMs. WD is also currently shipping to
OEMs ultra-slim, 7mm and 9.5mm SSHDs for portable devices.
About WD
WD, a Western Digital company, is a long-time innovator and storage
industry leader. As a storage technology pacesetter, the company
produces reliable, high-performance hard disk drives and solid state
drives. These drives are deployed by OEMs and integrators in desktop and
mobile computers, enterprise computing systems, embedded systems and
consumer electronics applications, as well as by the company in
providing its own storage products. WD’s leading storage devices and
systems, networking products, media players and software solutions
empower people around the world to easily save, store, protect, share
and experience their content on multiple devices. WD was established in
1970 and is headquartered in Irvine, Calif. For more information, please
visit the company’s website at www.wd.com.
Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), Irvine, Calif., is a global
provider of products and services that empower people to create, manage,
experience and preserve digital content. Its companies design and
manufacture storage devices, networking equipment and home entertainment
products under the WD, HGST and G-Technology brands. Visit the Investor
section of the company's website (www.westerndigital.com)
to access a variety of financial and investor information.
About SanDisk
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) is a global leader in flash memory
storage solutions, from research and development, product design and
manufacturing to branding and distribution for commercial and retail
channels. Since 1988, SanDisk's innovations in flash memory and storage
system technologies have provided customers with new and
transformational digital experiences. SanDisk's diverse product
portfolio includes flash memory cards and embedded solutions used in
smart phones, tablets, digital cameras, camcorders, digital media
players and other consumer electronic devices, as well as USB flash
drives and solid state drives (SSD) for the computing market. SanDisk's
products are used by consumers and enterprise customers around the world.
SanDisk is a Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 and Fortune 500 company, with
more than half its sales outside the United States. For more
information, visit www.sandisk.com.
1 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. Total accessible
capacity varies depending on operating environment. Some capacity not
available for user storage.
© 2013 SanDisk Corporation and Western Digital Corporation. All rights
reserved. SanDisk is a trademark of SanDisk Corporation, registered in
the United States and other countries. Western Digital, WD and the WD
logo are registered trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. in
the U.S. and other countries. WD Black is a trademark of Western Digital
Technologies, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Other brand names
mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the
trademarks of their respective holder(s).
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including
expectations for markets, products and customers that are based on our
current expectations and involve numerous risks and uncertainties that
may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate. Risks that
may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include
among others: the market demand for our products may grow more slowly
than our expectations or our products may not be available in the
capacities that we expect or perform as expected, or the other risks
detailed from time-to-time in our Securities and Exchange Commission
filings and reports, including, but not limited to, our most recent
quarterly report on Form 10-Q and our annual report on Form 10-K. We do
not intend to update the information contained in this press release.
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