Nuovi Hard Disk WD

IRVINE, Calif. - Aug. 22, 2000 - Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) announced that its WD Caviar® 7200 RPM, 20 GB-per-platter hard drive is now in customer qualification and will ship in volume before the end of this month. Western Digital is the continued time-to-market leader in the 7200 RPM high-performance desktop market segment, having been the first manufacturer to deliver a 10 GB-per-platter design in December 1999, and doubling its areal density to be the first with 20 GB-per-platter.

"Western Digital's 7200 RPM, 20 GB-per-platter hard drive is the type of component that allows Dell to deliver cutting-edge, high-performance systems to its customers," said Stephan Godevais, Dell vice president of consumer and small business products. "Working with leading suppliers like Western Digital helps Dell as we continually strive to stay ahead of the performance curve with our Dimension desktop systems."

"The demand for 7200 RPM hard drives, especially in higher capacity points, will outpace 5400 RPM in the first calendar quarter of 2001," said John Donovan, vice president of industry analyst firm TrendFocus. "Western Digital's aggressive time-to-market strategy well positions it to capitalize on this trend."

The steady, rapid increases in Western Digital storage-capacity technologies are fueled by more sophisticated and storage-consuming software applications in areas such as gaming, graphic design, and personal entertainment, as well as Internet applications benefiting from broadband. These applications also require high-performance hard drives, including those spinning at 7200 RPM.

The WD Caviar 7200 RPM, 20 GB-per-platter model is a two-platter design with as many as four heads. It will be available in 10, 20, 30 and 40 GB capacities. The drive's Ultra ATA/100 high-speed interface, 8.9 ms seek time and 2 MB buffer enhances desktop computer performance.

Users will benefit from the new WD Caviar 7200 RPM hard drive's 20 percent increase in performance, compared with its previous generation product, according to benchmarking tests completed in Western Digital's Functional Integrity Testing Laboratory (FIT Lab™).

Steve Campbell, senior vice president of research and development for Western Digital's hard drive business, said the rapid development cycle for the company's 20 GB-per-platter products, the third generation of the current WD Caviar 7200 RPM design, was made possible by planning that took place in earlier hard drive designs.

"We designed the new WD Caviar 7200 RPM's predecessor, a 10 GB-per-platter platform, in ways that looked ahead to the need for fast progression in areal density," Campbell said. "This enabled us to very rapidly leap from 10 GB-per-platter/ATA 66, to 10 GB-per-platter/ATA 100, and now to 20GB-per-platter/ATA 100. The extendable product platform design will streamline development time for subsequent product generations, and has enabled intense OEM customer collaboration, resulting in shorter qualification periods."

"The increasing pace of development by our OEM customers demands rapid response by Western Digital," said Richard E. Rutledge, vice president of marketing for Western Digital's hard drive business. "Our answer has been to build ever-closer relationships with major OEM customers that help us anticipate their needs and streamline the design process further with each new platform we design."

Western Digital Heritage

Western Digital's SoundLogic™ acoustic technologies progress in step with areal density and performance for the new WD Caviar 7200 RPM hard drive. The new model is one of the quietest hard drives in its class, producing only 30 db in idle mode and 30.5 db in seek mode - important in all environments and critical in audio/video applications.

Just as with all Western Digital hard drives, the 7200 RPM, 20 GB-per-platter model incorporates the company's Data Lifeguard™ data protection features, including Shock Guard™, which provides outstanding shock and vibration protection to further preserve data integrity without compromising performance. Other Data Lifeguard features protect end-user data by automatically detecting, isolating, and repairing possible problem areas on the hard drive before data loss occurs.

One of the data storage industry's longtime leaders, Western Digital Corporation is leveraging its core strengths to become a leading Internet solutions company, providing services and products to manage, store and communicate both digital content and network intelligence. The Company remains an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of hard drives for desktop computers and home entertainment applications. Through its Connex subsidiary, Western Digital delivers enterprise-class storage functionality for the department and mid-sized business markets, including storage management software, network attached storage and storage area networks. The Company's SageTree subsidiary markets packaged analytical applications and professional services to help manufacturers manage quality and quality-related business decisions throughout the entire supply chain and product lifecycle.

Western Digital was founded in 1970. The Company's storage products are marketed to leading systems manufacturers and select resellers under the Western Digital brand name. Its home page can be found at www.westerndigital.com.

This release may contain forward-looking statements concerning future technology and products incorporating that technology. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties which could materially affect Western Digital's results, including, but not limited to, the company's ability to execute new product production ramps and utilize manufacturing assets efficiently, pricing, competition, the significant uncertainty of market acceptance of new products; and other risk factors contained in the company's recent SEC filings. Western Digital undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of the statements