From X-bit Labs: Western Digital, a leading maker of hard disk drives that recently acquired a maker of flash-based drives, said that it would boost investments into creation of more advanced solid-state drives (SSDs). “Our current spending reflects increased investments in technological advancements, new products and programs, and includes our recently acquired SSD business,” said Tim Leyden, chief financial officer of WD during the most-recent conference call with financial analysts. Back in March Western Digital announced that it acquired SiliconSystems, a supplier of solid-state drives (SSDs) for the embedded systems market, for $65 million. WD in June released its first own-brand solid-state drive called SiliconDrive III, which was aimed at enterprise user. Western Digital’s rival Seagate Technologies also started to ship its SSDs designed for enterprise users. Meanwhile, suppliers of flash-based products, such as SanDisk Corp., claims that flash-based storage will not go mainstream until 2011 – 2012 timeframe. View: Article @ Source Site |