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 Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC) (often abbreviated to WD) is a manufacturer of computer hard disk drives, and has a long history in the electronics industry as an integrated circuit maker and a storage products company. Western Digital was founded on April 23, 1970 as General Digital, initially (and briefly) a manufacturer of MOS semiconductor test equipment. It rapidly became a specialty semiconductor maker, with startup capital provided by several individual investors and industrial giant Emerson Electric Company. In July, 1971, they adopted their current name, had moved to Newport Beach, California, and soon after introduced their first product, the WD1402A UART. Western Digital is currently the second largest hard drive company, after Seagate Technology. WDC is also notable because it is the first manufacturer which, in 2001, offered mainstream ATA hard disk drives with 8 MB (8 MiB) of cache buffer. At that time most desktop hard disk drives (HDDs) had 2 MB of buffer. WDC labeled the 8 MB models as "Special Edition" and distinguished them with the JB code (the 2 MB models had the BB code). The first 8 MB cache drive was the 100 GB WD1000JB and soon models with capacities from 40 GB to 250 GB and more followed. WDC advertised the JB models as a good choice for cost-effective file servers. In 2003, WD acquired most of the assets of bankrupt hard drive one-time market leading magnetic read-write head developer Read-Rite Corporation. In the same year, WDC offered the first 10,000 rpm Serial ATA HDD: The WD360GD "Raptor" with a capacity of 36 GB and an average access time of less than 6 milliseconds. Soon, the 74 GB WD740GD, which is also much quieter, followed and in 2005 Western Digital released the 150 GB version, the WD1500. As of 2004 the "Raptor" drives have 5 years of warranty, making them a more attractive choice for inexpensive storage servers, where a large number of drives in constant use increases the likelihood of a drive failure. In 2006, Western Digital introduced its MyBook line of mass market external hard drives that feature a compact book-like design. On the 7th October 2007 Western Digital released several editions of a single 1 TB hard drive - the largest in its MyBook line. In 2007 Western Digital adopted perpendicular recording technology in its line of notebook and desktop drives. This allowed it to produce notebook and desktop drives in the largest classes of the time. Western Digital also started to produce the energy efficient GP (Green Power)[3] range of drives notable for their very low power consumption and heat dissipation but surprisingly good performance.[4] in 2007 Western Digital announce the WD GP drive touting rotational speed "between 7200 and 5400 rpm" which is technically correct, the drive spins at 5405rpm, but the Green Power spin speed is not variable. On April 21, 2008, Western Digital announced the next generation of its 10,000 RPM SATA Raptor series of hard drives. The new drives, called WD VelociRaptor, feature 300 GB capacity and 2.5-inch platters enclosed in the IcePack™, a 3.5-inch mounting frame with a built-in heat sink. Western Digital claims the new drives are 35 percent faster than the previous generation Raptors. On September 12, 2008, Western Digital ships a 500gb 2.5 inch notebook hard drive which is part of their Scorpio Blue series of notebook hard drives. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Quantum Corporation (NYSE: QTM) is a manufacturer of tape drive, tape automation, data deduplication storage products and scalable file storage software, based in San Jose, California. From its founding in 1980 until 2000, it was also a major disk storage manufacturer (usually #2 in market share behind Seagate), and was based in Milpitas, California. By 2000, the hard drive market was getting squeezed. Personal computer sales were dropping, value drives had razor-thin margins and were only getting thinner, and several makers (notably Western Digital) were in trouble. Quantum decided to sell its hard drive division to Maxtor at this time. Maxtor continued most of Quantum's disk storage products and brands until it was acquired by Seagate Technology on December 21st, 2005. Quantum got its start when executives and designers from Shugart Associates, IBM and Memorex came up with an idea for an 8-inch hard drive that would achieve decent performance without the cost or complexity of using a full closed-loop servo system — a difficult task before the advent of dedicated servo ICs and readily-available DSPs. Quantum made a few missteps during the late 1990s. After hitting its peak with the Fireball AT 1080 and Fireball AT 1280 (both high-performance 5400 rpm models), it skewed briefly toward "value" drives that concentrated more on capacity than speed or performance. The Bigfoot drive was the best-known product of this era; it used a 5.25-inch form factor and larger disks to increase drive capacity without forcing an increase in areal density. However, the Bigfoot drives had slow spindles (the first ones ran at only 3600 rpm, long obsolete by then), and the larger disk diameters meant the heads had to move farther when seeking. They were thus generally disliked by "power users", and found their way mostly into inexpensive brand-name PCs. Quantum also applied the "Fireball" name (which had previously been reserved for the high-end 1080 and 1280 models) to a new "TM" model that featured better throughput, but slower seek times due to a 4500 rpm spindle. Later versions of the Fireball series reversed this trend, and eventually a 7200 rpm Fireball Plus ATA version was released, being one of the first mainstream consumer-oriented 7200 rpm drives. The first of the Plus series was the Fireball Plus KA, a drive available in sizes up to 18.2 gigabytes, and equipped with the new Ultra DMA 66 interface. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Maxtor Corporation was an American manufacturer of computer hard disk drives founded in 1982 and acquired by Seagate in 2006. As of December 2005, just prior to the acquisition, Maxtor was the world's third-largest manufacturer of hard disks. It now operates as a subsidiary of Seagate. In 2000, Maxtor purchased Quantum's hard drive business. This move made them larger than their rivals (notably Seagate), and also returned them to the server-SCSI market. In a deal worth US$1.9 billion, Maxtor was acquired by its rival Seagate in 2006. It is now used as a Seagate brand. Maxtor targeted both the server and desktop market, concentrating on disk capacity more than disk speed for desktops. After nine years of development, the original XT-series of drives had achieved a capacity of 1 GB. Maxtor sold the rights to the series to a company called Sequel in the mid-1990s, thus exiting the server SCSI drive market. Sequel was not a disk drive manufacturer; rather they specialized in refurbishing drives for the existing customer base. Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy in 1992, Maxtor's exit from the high capacity 5.25-inch SCSI market temporarily left a product void in the industry. Around this time, SCSI versions of the 7000 series drives were also discontinued and all engineering operations in San Jose were shut down in late 1993, leaving only the former MiniScribe design engineering staff. After turnover in the executive staff, Maxtor decided it had made a mistake, and having moved its headquarters to nearby Milpitas, gradually began rebuilding its Silicon Valley engineering staff. Maxtor, in recent years, like many other hard drive makers, had been expanding into the external hard disk market, with the Maxtor One-Touch II personal hard drive, which is marketed as convenient external storage for the home user. Maxtor had initially made efforts to get into the 2.5-inch hard disk market (notebook computer format) but, in the beginning of 2005, new management made the surprising decision to discontinue development in this field. This was considered by many industry watchers[who?] to be a particularly peculiar move, since the market for such hard drives (mainly notebook computers and MP3 players) was already experiencing rapid growth, with no signs of slowing down in the foreseeable future. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) is the world's largest manufacturer of hard drives and storage solutions. The company was founded in 1979 and is based in Scotts Valley, California. Seagate's hard drives are used in a variety of computers, from servers, desktops, and laptops, to other consumer devices, such as digital video recorders, Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and in portable media players and automotive navigation systems. In addition, Seagate designs rugged 2.5-inch hard drives optimized for extreme temperatures, shock and vibration. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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