WD® Demonstrates Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording Hard Drive Technology At 2013 China (Ningbo) International Forum On Advanced Materials And Commercialization

NINGBO, China and IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- WD^®, a Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) company and storage industry leader, demonstrated its revolutionary heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology at the 2013 China (Ningbo) International Forum on Advanced Materials and Commercialization. WD's vice president of technology, Dr. William Cain, gave his presentation, 'Magnetic Hard Disk Media: Enabling High Density Data Storage,' on a PC powered by a fully enabled WD HAMR 2.5-inch hard drive.

"Analysts predict 25 trillion gigabytes of new data will be generated by 2020[1] and that average household storage needs in the U.S. will require as much as 3.3 TB by 2016[2]," said Dr. Cain. "This tremendous growth in data requires continued increases in storage capacity and performance for the cloud, big data and consumer technologies. WD is focused on hard drive innovations that will enable future storage capabilities, and HAMR technology is a key step in the migration path."

HAMR technology may offer a solution for increasing areal density (AD) by magnetically recording data on high-stability media using laser thermal assistance. The technology shrinks data bits in a stable manner by briefly heating the disk surface during magnetic head recording. The method can increase data density by a factor of more than 5 and ultimately results in storage capacities as great as 4 terabits per square inch.

WD is addressing the challenges associated with HAMR technology, including designing media that manages the increasing complexities of concurrently meeting magnetic, thermal and optical requirements; laser light path integration; and head-disk interface reliability and lifetime.

Dr. Cain's presentation and discussion will be held Nov. 13^th at 11:00 a.m. during the International Symposium on Magneto-electronic Materials and 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, California. 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.

This news release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the estimated growth of storage needs and the potential success of WD to meet the challenges associated with HAMR technology. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including the viability of HAMR technology or, even if HAMR technologies or products are viable, that they will be profitable or accepted by the market; the possibility that advanced technologies may be developed by competitors or brought to market faster than WD; the failure to accurately anticipate customers' changing needs and emerging technological trends; the failure by certain suppliers to develop and manufacture components, technology or production equipment for our products; global economic or political conditions; changes in markets, competition, demand and or 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, to which your attention is directed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak as of the date hereof, and WD undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Western Digital, WD, the WD logo are registered trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to other companies. As used for storage capacity one gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes, one terabyte (TB) = 1 trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment. See support.wdc.com for limited warranty terms and conditions. 

[1] IDC: "Worldwide and Regional Public IT Cloud Services 2013–2017 Forecast", Aug 2013 (Doc #242464)

[2] Gartner: "Forecast: Consumer Digital Storage Needs: 2010-2016" by Shalini Verma 16 March 2012 (G00232445)

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SOURCE WD