HGST Extends Development Agreement With Intel For HGST's Enterprise-Class SAS SSDs

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterprise storage leader HGST, a Western Digital company (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced it will extend the use of Intel NAND Flash technology as part of a cooperative agreement with Intel Corporation on Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) solid state drives (SSDs). Since 2008, HGST has successfully worked with Intel to develop industry-leading enterprise-class SAS SSDs for servers, workstations and storage systems. The resulting products have combined HGST's enterprise storage experience with Intel's NAND Flash expertise, and are the foundation for HGST's leading position in SAS SSDs.

Intel's focus and investment in NAND flash memory research and SSD development provides industry-leading advancements in next-generation NAND lithography and offers high-endurance SSD technology. HGST brings proven enterprise storage expertise in SAS design, firmware, reliability, customer qualification and system integration. This combination enables HGST to deliver world-class solutions with the performance, endurance and reliability that enterprise storage customers demand.

The combination of technologies from HGST and Intel has already resulted in four generations of successful HGST SAS SSDs. This announcement reflects HGST's plans to continue use of Intel's NAND Flash technology in HGST's enterprise-class SAS SSDs for three more years. These solutions will continue to be marketed and sold exclusively by HGST, and are part of HGST's comprehensive portfolio of HDDs, SSDs, software and solutions that help data center managers build tomorrow's IT infrastructures today.

"We are proud of what HGST has accomplished in working with Intel over the past six years," said Mike Gustafson, senior vice president and general manager of HGST Flash Platforms Group. "HGST continues to invest significantly in the enterprise SSD area, and strategic engagements are a key element of our strategy. Intel complements our proven enterprise storage capabilities with its NAND Flash expertise, resulting in our leading position. We look forward to the continued success of the HGST Ultrastar SAS SSD product line."

"Our work with HGST underscores the importance we place on developing the best SSD solutions for high-performance enterprise workloads," said Rob Crooke, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel's Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group. "This product development effort advances our NAND Flash technology innovations into the important SAS SSD market by addressing critical data center pain points related to scalable and flexible solutions that help deliver system compatibility and ease of integration into new and existing system designs."

For more information about HGST products and solutions, please visit www.hgst.com.

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About HGST
HGST is a wholly owned and independently operated subsidiary of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC). HGST sets the pace for storage innovation and is helping the world harness the power of data. Building on its reputation for producing reliable HDDs, SSDs, and developing tighter integration with software, HGST is optimizing storage efficiency and reliability for today's data-centric economy. Founded by the creators of the hard drive, HGST serves a broad range of market segments, including enterprise, cloud, OEM, mobile, consumer electronics and personal storage. HGST was established in 2003 and maintains its U.S. headquarters in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit www.hgst.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to HGST's product and solutions offerings, solutions marketed by HGST and HGST's investments in enterprise SSDs. 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 changes in markets, demand, global economic conditions and other risks and uncertainties listed in Western Digital's recent SEC filings, 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 HGST/WD undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Long Live Data is a trademark and Ultrastar is a registered trademark of HGST, a Western Digital Company and its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. Western Digital, WD, and the WD logo are registered trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other products and services listed herein are trademarks of their respective companies.

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SOURCE HGST, A Western Digital Company