Western Digital Corporation (WDC, commonly known as Western Digital or WD) is an American
computer drive manufacturer and
data storage
Data storage is the recording (storing) of information (data) in a storage medium. Handwriting, phonographic recording, magnetic tape, and optical discs are all examples of storage media. Biological molecules such as RNA and DNA are conside ...
company, headquartered in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology products, including
data storage device
Data storage is the recording (storing) of information (data) in a storage medium. Handwriting, phonographic recording, magnetic tape, and optical discs are all examples of storage media. Biological molecules such as RNA and DNA are conside ...
s,
data center
A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunic ...
systems and
cloud storage service
A file-hosting service, cloud-storage service, online file-storage provider, or cyberlocker is an internet hosting service specifically designed to host user files. It allows users to upload files that could be accessed over the internet afte ...
s.
Western Digital has a long history in the electronics industry as an
integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...
maker and a storage products company. It is one of the largest computer
hard disk drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
manufacturers, along with producing
solid state drive
A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data Persistence (computer science), persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the Computer ...
s and
flash memory
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both us ...
devices. Its competitors include the data management and storage companies
Seagate Technology
Seagate Technology Holdings plc is an American data storage company. It was incorporated in 1978 as Shugart Technology and commenced business in 1979. Since 2010, the company has been incorporated in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquart ...
and
Micron Technology
Micron Technology, Inc. is an American producer of computer memory and computer data storage including dynamic random-access memory, flash memory, and USB flash drives. It is headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Its consumer products, including ...
.
History
1970s
![General Digital Corporation headquarters 1971](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/General_Digital_Corporation_headquarters_1971.png)
Western Digital was founded on April 23, 1970, by Alvin B. Phillips, a
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...
employee, as General Digital Corporation, initially a manufacturer of
MOS
MOS or Mos may refer to:
Technology
* MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor), also known as the MOS transistor
* Mathematical Optimization Society
* Model output statistics, a weather-forecasting technique
* MOS (filmm ...
test equipment. It was originally based in
Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island, Newport ...
, shortly thereafter moving to
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the List of ...
, and would go on to become one of the largest technology firms headquartered in
Orange County
Orange County most commonly refers to:
*Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Orange County may also refer to:
U.S. counties
*Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando
*Orange County, Indiana
*Orange County, New ...
.
It rapidly became a specialty
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...
maker, with start-up capital provided by several individual investors and industrial giant
Emerson Electric
Emerson Electric Co. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Ferguson, Missouri. The ''Fortune'' 500 company manufactures products and provides engineering services for industrial, commercial, and consumer markets. . Around July 1971, it adopted its current name and soon introduced its first product, the ''WD1402A''
UART
A universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART ) is a computer hardware device for asynchronous serial communication in which the data format and transmission speeds are configurable. It sends data bits one by one, from the least significan ...
.
During the early 1970s, the company focused on making and selling
calculator
An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics.
The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-sized ...
chips, and by 1975, Western Digital was the largest independent calculator chip maker in the world. The
oil crisis of the mid-1970s and the bankruptcy of its biggest calculator customer, Bowmar Instrument,
changed its fortunes, however, and in 1976 Western Digital declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. After this, Emerson Electric withdrew their support of the company.
Chuck Missler
Charles W. Missler (May 28, 1934 – May 1, 2018) was an American author, evangelical Christian, Bible teacher, engineer, and businessman.
Business career
Missler graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1956 and received a Master's degree in ...
joined Western Digital as chairman and chief executive in June 1977, and became the largest shareholder of Western Digital.
In 1973, Western Digital established its Malaysian plant, initially to manufacture semiconductors.
Western Digital introduced several products during the late 1970s, including the ''
MCP-1600
The MCP-1600 is a multi-chip 16-bit microprocessor introduced by Western Digital in 1975 and produced through the early 1980s. Used in the Pascal MicroEngine, the WD16 processor in the Alpha Microsystems AM-100, and the DEC LSI-11 microcompute ...
'' multi-chip,
microcode
In processor design, microcode (μcode) is a technique that interposes a layer of computer organization between the central processing unit (CPU) hardware and the programmer-visible instruction set architecture of a computer. Microcode is a laye ...
d
CPU. The MCP-1600 was used to implement
DEC's
LSI-11
The PDP-11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, ...
system, the
WD16, and their own
Pascal MicroEngine Pascal MicroEngine is a series of microcomputer products manufactured by Western Digital from 1979 through the mid-1980s, designed specifically to run the UCSD p-System efficiently. Compared to other microcomputers, which use a machine language ...
microcomputer which ran the
UCSD p-System
UCSD Pascal is a Pascal programming language system that runs on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1977. It was developed at the University of California, San Diego (UCS ...
Version III and
UCSD Pascal
UCSD Pascal is a Pascal programming language system that runs on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1977. It was developed at the University of California, San Diego (UCS ...
. However, the WD integrated circuit that arguably drove Western's forward integration was the ''
FD1771'',
["The FD1771 is a single-chip floppy disk formatter/controller that interfaces with most available disk drives and virtually all types of computers."] one of the first single-chip floppy disk drive formatter/controllers, which could replace significant amounts of TTL logic.
1980s
The FD1771 and its kin were Western Digital's first entry into the data storage industry; by the early 1980s, they were making
hard disk drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
controllers, and in 1983, they won the contract to provide
IBM with controllers for the
PC/AT
The IBM Personal Computer/AT (model 5170, abbreviated as IBM AT or PC/AT) was released in 1984 as the fourth model in the IBM Personal Computer line, following the IBM PC/XT and its IBM Portable PC variant. It was designed around the Intel 8028 ...
. That controller, the ''WD1003'', became the basis of the
ATA interface (which Western Digital developed along with
Compaq
Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...
and
Control Data Corporation's MPI division, now owned by
Seagate Technology
Seagate Technology Holdings plc is an American data storage company. It was incorporated in 1978 as Shugart Technology and commenced business in 1979. Since 2010, the company has been incorporated in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquart ...
), starting in 1986. Throughout most of the 1980s, the family of controllers based on the WD1003 provided the bulk of Western Digital's revenues and profits, and for a time generated enormous corporate growth.
![WDC WD33C93-PL](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/WDC_WD33C93-PL.jpg)
Much of the mid-to-late 1980s saw an effort by Western Digital to use the profits from their ATA storage controllers to become a general-purpose
OEM
An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
hardware supplier for the PC industry. As a result, Western Digital purchased a number of hardware companies. These included
graphics cards
A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer moni ...
(through its ''Paradise'' subsidiary, purchased 1986, which became Western Digital Imaging), core logic chipsets (by purchasing Faraday Electronics Inc. in 1987), SCSI controller chips for disk and tape devices (by purchasing ADSI in 1986), networking (''WD8003'', ''WD8013''
Ethernet
Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...
and ''WD8003S''
StarLAN StarLAN was the first IEEE 802.3 standard for Ethernet over twisted pair wiring. It was standardized by the standards association of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as 802.3e in 1986, as the 1BASE5 version of Ethernet. ...
). They did well (especially Paradise, which produced one of the best
VGA
Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can no ...
cards of the era), but storage-related chips and disk controllers were their biggest money makers. In 1986, they introduced the ''WD33C93'' single-chip
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...
interface, which was used in the first 16-bit
bus mastering
In computing, bus mastering is a feature supported by many bus architectures that enables a device connected to the bus to initiate direct memory access (DMA) transactions. It is also referred to as first-party DMA, in contrast with third-party ...
SCSI host adapter, the ''WD7000 "FASST"''; in 1987 they introduced the ''WD37C65'', a single-chip implementation of the PC/AT's floppy disk controller circuitry, and the grandfather of modern
super I/O
Super I/O is a class of I/O controller integrated circuits that began to be used on personal computer motherboards in the late 1980s, originally as add-in cards, later embedded on the motherboards. A super I/O chip combines interfaces for a vari ...
chips; in 1988 they introduced the ''WD42C22 "Vanilla"'', the first single-chip ATA hard disk controller.
1988 also brought what would be the biggest change in Western Digital's history. That year, Western Digital bought the hard drive production assets of PC hardware maker
Tandon; the first products of that union under Western Digital's own name were the "Centaur" series of ATA and XT attachment drives.
1990s
![Western Digital Caviar280](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Western_Digital_Caviar280.JPG)
By 1991, things were starting to slow down, as the PC industry moved from
ST-506
The ST-506 and ST-412 (sometimes written ST506 and ST412) were early hard disk drive products introduced by Seagate in 1980 and 1981 respectively, that later became construed as hard disk drive interfaces: the ST-506 disk interface and the ST-41 ...
and
ESDI drives to ATA and SCSI, and thus were buying fewer hard disk controller boards. That year saw the rise of Western Digital's ''Caviar'' drives, brand new designs that used the latest in
embedded servo and computerized diagnostic systems.
Eventually, the successful sales of the Caviar drives resulted in Western Digital starting to sell some of its divisions. Paradise was sold to
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
, and since disappeared. Its networking and floppy drive controller divisions went to SMC Networks and its SCSI chip business went to Future Domain, which was later bought out by market leader
Adaptec
Adaptec was a computer storage company and remains a brand for computer storage products. The company was an independent firm from 1981 to 2010, at which point it was acquired by PMC-Sierra, which itself was later acquired by Microsemi, which itse ...
. Around 1995, the technological lead that the Caviar drives had enjoyed was eclipsed by newer offerings from other companies, especially
Quantum Corp.
Quantum Corporation is a data storage, management, and protection company that provides technology to store, manage, archive, and protect video and unstructured data throughout the data lifecycle. Their products are used by enterprises, media and ...
, and Western Digital fell into a slump.
In 1994, Western Digital began producing hard drives at its Malaysian factory, employing 13,000 people.
Products and ideas of this time did not go far. The ''Portfolio'' drive (a
form factor model, developed with
JT Storage
JT Storage, Inc. (also known as JTS Corporation) was a maker of inexpensive Advanced Technology Attachment, IDE hard drives for personal computers based in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1994 by Sirjang Lal Tandon, "Jugi" Tandon—the ...
) was a flop, as was the SDX hard disk to
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
interface. Western Digital's drives started to slip further behind competing products, and quality began to suffer;
system builders and PC enthusiasts who used to recommend Western Digital above all else, were going to the competition, particularly
Maxtor
Maxtor was an American computer hard disk drive manufacturer. Founded in 1982, it was the third largest hard disk drive manufacturer in the world before being purchased by Seagate in 2006.
History
Overview
In 1981, three former IBM employ ...
, whose products had improved significantly by the late 1990s.
In an attempt to turn the tide in 1998, Western Digital recruited the help of
IBM. This agreement gave Western Digital the rights to use certain IBM technologies, including
giant magneto-resistive (GMR) heads and access to IBM production facilities. The result was the ''Expert'' line of drives, introduced in early 1999. The idea worked, and Western Digital regained respect in the press and among users, even despite a recall in 2000 (which was due to bad motor driver chips). Western Digital later broke ties with IBM.
2000s
In 2001, Western Digital became the first manufacturer to offer mainstream ATA hard disk drives with 8
MiB of
disk buffer
In computer storage, disk buffer (often ambiguously called disk cache or cache buffer) is the embedded memory in a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD) acting as a buffer between the rest of the computer and the physical hard disk ...
. At that time, most desktop hard disk drives had 2 MB of buffer. Western Digital labeled these 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, followed by other models starting with 40 GB capacity. Western Digital advertised the JB models for cost-effective
file server
In computing, a file server (or fileserver) is a computer attached to a network that provides a location for shared disk access, i.e. storage of computer files (such as text, image, sound, video) that can be accessed by the workstations that are ab ...
s. In October 2001, Western Digital restated its prior year results to reflect the adoption of SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No.101 and the reclassification of Connex and SANavigator results as discontinued operations.
In 2003, Western Digital acquired most of the assets of bankrupt one-time market leading magnetic hard drive read-write head developer Read-Rite Corporation. In the same year, Western Digital offered the first 10,000
rpm
Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines.
Standards
ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
Serial ATA
SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard t ...
HDD, the WD360GD "
Raptor
Raptor or RAPTOR may refer to:
Animals
The word "raptor" refers to several groups of bird-like dinosaurs which primarily capture and subdue/kill prey with their talons.
* Raptor (bird) or bird of prey, a bird that primarily hunts and feeds on v ...
", with a capacity of 36 GB and an average access time of less than six milliseconds. Soon, the 74 GB WD740GD followed, which was also much quieter. In 2004, Western Digital redesigned its logo for the first time since 1997, with the design of new logo focusing on the company's initials ("WD"). In 2005, Western Digital released a 150 GB version, the WD1500, which was also available in a special version with a transparent window enabling the user to see the drive's heads move over the platters while the drive read and wrote data. , the
Western Digital Raptor
The Western Digital Raptor (often marketed as WD Raptor, 2.5" models known as VelociRaptor) is a discontinued series of high performance hard disk drives produced by Western Digital first marketed in 2003. The drive occupies a niche in the enthus ...
drives have a five-year warranty, making them a more attractive choice for inexpensive
storage server
In computing, a file server (or fileserver) is a computer attached to a network that provides a location for shared disk access, i.e. storage of computer files (such as text, image, sound, video) that can be accessed by the workstations that are ab ...
s, where a large number of drives in constant use increases the likelihood of a drive failure.
In 2006, Western Digital introduced its My Book line of mass market external hard drives that feature a compact book-like design. On October 7, 2007, Western Digital released several editions of a single 1
TB hard drive, the largest in its My Book line.
In 2007, Western Digital acquired magnetic media maker Komag. Also in the same year, Western Digital adopted
perpendicular recording
Perpendicular recording (or perpendicular magnetic recording, PMR), also known as conventional magnetic recording (CMR), is a technology for data recording on magnetic media, particularly hard disks. It was first proven advantageous in 1976 by Sh ...
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) range of drives.
In 2007, Western Digital announced the WD GP drive touting rotational speed "between 7200 and 5400 rpm", which is technically correct while also being misleading; the drive spins at 5405 rpm, and the Green Power spin speed is not variable. WD GP drives are programmed to unload the heads whenever idle for a very short period of time. Many Linux installations write to the file system a few times a minute in the background. As a result, there may be 100 or more load cycles per hour, and the 300,000 load cycles rating of a WD GP drive may be exceeded in less than a year.
![Two Western Digital VelociRaptor 1 TB SATA 10,000 rpm 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Two_Western_Digital_VelociRaptor_1_TB_SATA_10%2C000_rpm_3.5-inch_HDDs.jpg)
On April 21, 2008, Western Digital announced the next generation of its 10,000 rpm SATA WD Raptor series of hard drives. The new drives, called WD
VelociRaptor
''Velociraptor'' (; ) is a genus of small dromaeosaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous epoch, about 75 million to 71 million years ago. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the pa ...
, featured 300 GB capacity and platters enclosed in the IcePack, a mounting frame with a built-in heat sink. Western Digital said that the new drives are 35 percent faster than the previous generation. On September 12, 2008, Western Digital shipped a 500 GB notebook hard drive which is part of their Scorpio Blue series of notebook hard drives.
On January 27, 2009, Western Digital shipped the first 2 TB internal hard disk drive. On March 30, 2009, they entered the
solid-state drive
A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the hierarchy of computer storage. It is ...
market with the acquisition of Siliconsystems, Inc. Its acquisition was unsuccessful, and few years later Western Digital discontinued all solid-state storage products based on Siliconsystems design (''SiliconEdge'' and ''SiliconDrive'' families of SSDs and memory cards), but its inventions was used later in development of various other solid-state storage products, with larger developments going on after 2016 acquisition of SanDisk.
On July 27, 2009, Western Digital announced the first 1 TB mobile hard disk drive, which shipped as both a Passport series portable USB drive as well as a Scorpio Blue series notebook drive.
In October 2009, Western Digital announced the shipment of first 3 TB internal hard disk drive, which has 750 GB-per-platter density with SATA interface.
2010s
In March 2011, Western Digital agreed to acquire the storage unit of
Hitachi
() is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...
,
HGST
HGST, Inc. (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) was a manufacturer of hard disk drives, solid-state drives, and external storage products and services.
It was initially a subsidiary of Hitachi, formed through its acquisition of IBM's disk dr ...
, for about $4.3 billion of which $3.5 billion was paid in cash and the rest with 25 million shares of Western Digital.
![Western Digital](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Western_Digital_%22Red%22_4_TB_SATA_NAS-optimized_3.5-inch_HDD.jpg)
In 2011, Western Digital established an R&D facility at its Malaysian plant at a cost of 1.2 billion US dollars.
In March 2012, Western Digital completed the acquisition of HGST and became the largest traditional hard drive manufacturer in the world. To address the requirements of regulatory agencies, in May 2012 Western Digital divested assets to manufacture and sell certain 3.5-inch hard drives for the desktop and consumer electronics markets to
Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
, in exchange for one of its 2.5-inch hard drive factories in Thailand.
In December 2013, Western Digital stopped manufacturing
parallel ATA
Parallel ATA (PATA), originally , also known as IDE, is a standard interface designed for IBM PC-compatible computers. It was first developed by Western Digital and Compaq in 1986 for compatible hard drives and CD or DVD drives. The connection ...
hard disk drives for laptops (2.5-inch form factor) and desktop PCs (3.5-inch form factor). Until that time, they were last hard disk manufacturer to produce PATA hard disk drives. Furthermore, they were the only manufacturer that had 250 GB and 320 GB in 2.5-inch form factor.
In February 2014, Western Digital announced a new "Purple" line of hard disk drives for use in
video surveillance
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly tr ...
systems, with capacities from 1 to 4 TB. They feature internal optimizations for applications that involve near-constant disk writing, and "AllFrame" technology which is designed to reduce write errors.
![Western Digital My Passport Ultra](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Western_Digital_My_Passport_Ultra.jpg)
In October 2015, after being required to operate the company autonomously from WD, the
Chinese Ministry of Commerce
The Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China (MOFCOM) is a cabinet-level executive agency of the State Council of China. It is responsible for formulating policy on foreign trade, export and import regulations, foreign direct i ...
issued a decision allowing the company to begin integrating HGST into its main business, but under the condition that it maintain the HGST brand and sales team for at least two more years. The HGST brand was phased out in 2018, and since then, all HGST-branded products are just branded Western Digital.
In May 2016, Western Digital acquired
SanDisk
SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquire ...
for US$19 billion.
In the summer of 2017, Western Digital licensed the
Fusion-io
Fusion-io, Inc. was a computer hardware and software systems company (acquired by SanDisk Corporation in 2014) based in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, that designed and manufactured products using flash memory technology. The Fusion was marketed ...
/SanDisk ION Accelerator software to One Stop Systems.
In 2016, HGST closed its Malaysian plant.
In August 2017, Western Digital bought cloud storage provider Upthere, with the intention to continue building out the service.
In September 2017, Western Digital acquired
Tegile Systems
IntelliFlash is a brand of DataDirect Networks (DDN) based in San Jose that manufactures flash storage arrays. The company, then known as Tegile Systems, was acquired by Western Digital in 2017 and by DDN in September 2019.
History
Tegile Sys ...
, maker of
flash memory
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both us ...
storage array
A disk array is a disk storage system which contains multiple disk drives. It is differentiated from a disk enclosure, in that an array has cache memory and advanced functionality, like RAID, deduplication, encryption and virtualization.
Compon ...
s. Western Digital rebranded Tegile as IntelliFlash and sold it to
DataDirect Networks
DataDirect Networks (DDN) is a privately-held data storage company, and is headquartered in Chatsworth, California, USA. Summary
DDN provides storage systems for unstructured data and big data, like AI, analytics and high performance computi ...
in September 2019.
In April 2017, Western Digital moved its headquarters from Irvine, California to HGST's headquarters in San Jose, California. In December 2017, Western Digital reached an agreement with Toshiba about the sale of the jointly owned NAND production facility in Japan. In May 2018, Toshiba reached an agreement with the Bain consortium about the sale of that chip unit.
In October 2017, Western Digital shipped the world's first 14 TB HDD, the helium-filled HGST Ultrastar Hs14.
In June 2018, Western Digital acquired Wearable, Inc., a small company based in the Chicago area that produced the SanDisk Wireless Drive and SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick, which were derived from Wearable Inc.’s AirStash wireless server platform.
In July 2018, Western Digital announced their plan to close their hard disk production facility in
Kuala Lumpur
, anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera''
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia
, pushpin_map_caption =
, coordinates =
, su ...
to shift the company towards flash drive production, leaving the company with just two HDD production facilities in Thailand.
The company ranked 158th on the 2018
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...
of the largest United States corporations by revenue.
In June 2019,
Kioxia
Kioxia Holdings Corporation (), simply known as Kioxia and stylized as KIOXIA, is an American-Japanese multinational computer memory manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company was spun off from the Toshiba conglomerate as in June ...
experienced a power cut at one of its factories in Yokkaichi, Japan, resulting in the loss of at least 6 exabytes of flash memory, with some sources estimating the loss as high as 15 exabytes. Western Digital used (and still uses) Kioxia's facilities for making its own flash memory chips.
2020s
![WD Elements hard drive](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/WD_Elements_hard_drive.jpg)
In November 2020, Western Digital produced a new consumer SSD, the WD Black SN850 1TB. Using a proprietary NVMe version 1.4 controller ("G2"), it is reported to outperform Samsung's 980 Pro 1TB as well as other, new-to-market SSDs containing the
Phison
Phison Electronics Corporation () is a Taiwanese public electronics company that primarily designs, manufactures and sells controllers for NAND flash memory chips. These are integrated into flash-based products such as USB flash drives, memory c ...
E18 controller that arrived after the SN850 became available. The only higher-performing SSD at that time was Intel's Optane line, which is a non-consumer, workstation/server-based SSD with a cost of over five times the SN850.
In June 2021, users reported that their
My Book Live NAS drives, which were discontinued products last manufactured in 2013, had been erased, leading to the company advising that the devices be disconnected from the internet.
In August 2021, Western Digital and Japanese memory-chip supplier
Kioxia
Kioxia Holdings Corporation (), simply known as Kioxia and stylized as KIOXIA, is an American-Japanese multinational computer memory manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company was spun off from the Toshiba conglomerate as in June ...
(formerly Toshiba Memory) began working out the details of a
merger
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...
to be finalized in September 2021. In October of the same year, it became clear that the merger talks stalled.
In February 2022, Western Digital and Kioxia reported that contamination issues have affected the output of their flash memory joint-production factories, with WD admitting that at least 6.5 exabytes of memory output being affected. The Kiakami and Yokkaichi factories in Japan stopped producing due to the contamination.
Products
Storage devices
Western Digital's offerings include HDDs and SSDs for computing devices (e.g. PCs, security surveillance systems, gaming consoles and
set-top boxes
A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...
); NAND-flash embedded storage products for mobile devices, notebook PCs and other portable and
IoT
The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other com ...
devices; and NAND flash memory wafers.
Western Digital's embedded storage devices include the iNAND product line and custom embedded products. Western Digital also provides microSD and
SD card
Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices.
The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDis ...
products to
OEMs
An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
only for automotive and industrial applications.
Use case classes
Western Digital color-codes certain storage devices based on their intended use case:
WD Green drives are energy efficient and are currently only available as an SSD. The WD Green HDD series was discontinued in 2015, and instead merged with WD Blue.
WD Purple hard drives are designed for write-heavy workloads; for instance, security applications (ex: recording video). These drives feature AllFrame technology, which attempts to reduce video frame loss,
time limited error recovery, and support for the ATA streaming command set.
WD brand
![2TB WD Elements Portable 1 2016-07-03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/2TB_WD_Elements_Portable_1_2016-07-03.jpg)
Western Digital also sells
external hard drives under the WD brand, with product families called
My Passport,
My Book, WD Elements, and Easystore.
While traditionally these products have used HDDs, Western Digital has started to offer SSD versions, such as the My Passport SSD, its first portable SSD.
Western Digital external hard drives with encryption software (sold under the My Passport brand) have been reported to have severe data protection faults and to be easy to decrypt.
As of 2019, the WD Elements line consists of WD Elements Portable (1-5TB, 4.3 x 3.2 x 0.5 inch),
WD Elements Desktop (3-14 TB, 5.3 x 1.8 x 6.5 inch), and WD Elements SE.
SanDisk
Under the
SanDisk
SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquire ...
brand, Western Digital offers mobile storage products, cards and readers, USB flash drives, SSDs and MP3 players. Most of Western Digital's consumer flash memory products are offered through SanDisk. The SanDisk product family, including the Flash Drive and Base, is made specifically for use with the
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
iPhone and
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
. The 400GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card was designed primarily for use in
Android smartphones that include an expansion slot.
SanDisk Professional
Under the
SanDisk Professional
SanDisk Professional (previously G-Technology) is a brand of Western Digital that produces external storage products designed and marketed for the Macintosh, creative pro, photography and A/V markets. Its USB, FireWire, eSATA, SAS, SCSI Thunder ...
brand, Western Digital offers HDD, SSD, platforms and systems products designed specifically for creative professionals.
It has partnerships with Apple, Atomos, and
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
.
Other products
After first offering the
Western Digital Media Center in 2004 (which was actually only a storage device), Western Digital offered the
WD TV
The WD TV is a consumer device that was produced by Western Digital which plays videos, images, and music from USB drives or network locations. The device was introduced in 2008 and played high-definition video through an HDMI port, and standar ...
series of products between 2008 and 2016. The WD TV series of products functioned as a
home theater PC
A home theater PC (HTPC) or media center computer is a technological convergence, convergent device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that focuses on video, photo, audio playback, and ...
, able play videos, images, and music from USB drives or network locations.
Western Digital offers the
My Cloud
The My Cloud is a line of personal network-attached storage devices and multi-purpose servers designed and marketed by Western Digital Corporation (WD). My Cloud devices come in sizes of 2 terabytes, 3 terabytes, 4 terabytes, and 8 terabytes. A s ...
series of products, which function as home media servers.
In September 2015, Western Digital released My Cloud OS 3, a platform that enables connected HDDs to sync between PCs and mobile devices.
Through Western Digital's acquisition of Upthere, the company offers personal cloud storage through the Upthere Home app and UpOS operating system.
Western Digital sells data center hardware and software including an enterprise-class Ultrastar product line that was previously sold under the HGST brand. Current hardware products include the 20 TB
CMR helium-filled HC560, the 20 TB
SMR helium-filled HC650, and the 6.4 TB
U.2
U.2 (pronounced 'u-dot-2'), formerly known as SFF-8639, is a computer interface standard for connecting solid-state drives (SSDs) to a computer. It covers the physical connector, electrical characteristics, and communication protocols.
It was ...
NVMe SN840
SSD
A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the hierarchy of computer storage. It is ...
,
Corporate affairs
Western Digital Capital is Western Digital's investment arm. It has contributed funding for data technology companies such as Elastifile and
Avere Systems
Avere Systems was a privately held technology company that produces computer data storage and data management infrastructure. The company was founded in 2008 and is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As of March 2017, the company had raised over ...
.
Lawsuits
Lawsuits have been filed against various manufacturers including Western Digital, related to the claimed capacity of their drives. The drives are labelled using the convention of 10
3 (1,000) bytes to the kilobyte, resulting in a perceived capacity shortfall when reported by most operating systems, which tend to use 2
10 (1,024) bytes to the kilobyte.
[Western Digital settles drive size lawsuit](_blank)
arstechnica.com
While Western Digital maintained that they used "the indisputably correct industry standard for measuring and describing storage capacity", and that they "cannot be expected to reform the software industry", they agreed to settle in March 2006, with a $30 refund to affected customers in the form of backup and recovery software of the same value.
In May 2020, Western Digital was sued for using
shingled magnetic recording
Shingled magnetic recording (SMR) is a magnetic storage data recording technology used in hard disk drives (HDDs) to increase storage density and overall per-drive storage capacity. Conventional hard disk drives record data by writing non-overl ...
technology in its
NAS
Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones.
Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to:
Aviation
* Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea
* National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia
** Nas Air ( ...
line of consumer drives without explicitly informing consumers. The lawsuit alleged that SMR technology is not suitable for the advertised use of the drives in a RAID array and intended to end any use of SMR in NAS drives.
Seagate, another data storage company and a direct competitor of Western Digital, stated that SMR is not suitable for NAS use and that Seagate uses only conventional magnetic recording in its NAS-oriented products. In response to the controversy, Western Digital introduced a new naming scheme, in which "WD Red Plus" describes disks using conventional magnetic recording and "WD Red" means SMR.
Acquisitions
References
External links
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