Western Digital SSD

WD's probably targeting embedded and industrial systems with these drives, why else would they fool with PATA?

There's a huge, high margin market for drives in systems that control machine tools, testing equipment, and the like. These are often very adverse environments with large amounts of dust, humidity, vibration, etc. Also, such computers are a pain to take down for repairs and have unusually long life cycles, so having an SSD in them that is almost certain to go five or more years is very appealing.
 
WDC bought a small SSD computer a little while back... 3-6 months I think. Those are some rather sad stats. 20k rpm drive research hasn't really gone any where because HD platters tend to snap into bits at that speed.
 
I don't understand why they bought an SSD company when they could have just rebranded an Indilinx or Intel drive like everyone else. :p
 
I don't understand why they bought an SSD company when they could have just rebranded an Indilinx or Intel drive like everyone else. :p

They are in the business of making storage devices... they will not rebrand. They are also not in the memory business so this is something new for them... give them time and they will catch up.
 
I fail to see why they would attempt to develop a 20k RPM drive when SSDs are clearly set to replace mechanical drives...it's just a matter of the tech improving and costs coming down.

I do not see 20k RPM drives being a big success. Once more people are exposed to SSDs they are going to become spoiled with the near-instant access times, lack of noise, etc. A 20k RPM drive might be a niche item that sells to people not sold on SSDs but they will never become mainstream like SSDs will. It's just too late in the game to try to introduce another mechanical drive geared for performance and thinking it will "compete" with SSDs. If 80GB SSDs were still $600, then maybe. But I see a LOT of people making the move to SSDs in the next several months and not even bothering to use mechanical drives for anything but file storage.
 
They are in the business of making storage devices... they will not rebrand. They are also not in the memory business so this is something new for them... give them time and they will catch up.

How is buying out an SSD company not brute-force rebranding? Rebranding an Indilinx would have been a better stop-gap than this move. At least it would have gotten their name out there in the SSD world with near first-class performance. Who in the mainstream would buy an OCZ, Corsair, GSKill, or Patriot SSD when they could get a "Western Digital"? The choice would be obvious.

Also, if they aren't in the memory business, they're essentially already in the same boat as Intel's other SSD competitors. Intel controls its own flash and its own SSD future IMO.
 
I fail to see why they would attempt to develop a 20k RPM drive when SSDs are clearly set to replace mechanical drives...

Exactly.

Your rumor is internet horse-pucky. :D
 
Western Digital is generally considered to be a great company. Nearly everything they've done in the last 20 years should lead you to believe they are well managed and competent. I'm sure they see where the future of the HDD market is headed, more so than any of us.

Bottom line is don't count these guys out. There's really no reason to even suggest that they are making a misstep this early in the SSD game.
 
How is buying out an SSD company not brute-force rebranding? Rebranding an Indilinx would have been a better stop-gap than this move. At least it would have gotten their name out there in the SSD world with near first-class performance. Who in the mainstream would buy an OCZ, Corsair, GSKill, or Patriot SSD when they could get a "Western Digital"? The choice would be obvious.

Also, if they aren't in the memory business, they're essentially already in the same boat as Intel's other SSD competitors. Intel controls its own flash and its own SSD future IMO.

If you want to argue it that way you can then argue that everything is "brute force rebranding".
 
Western Digital is generally considered to be a great company. Nearly everything they've done in the last 20 years should lead you to believe they are well managed and competent. I'm sure they see where the future of the HDD market is headed, more so than any of us.

Bottom line is don't count these guys out. There's really no reason to even suggest that they are making a misstep this early in the SSD game.
For the most recent 10 years, they've been a relatively small player that would be killed by one mistake or bad product line. WD and Seagate are the only independent storage manufacturers left, all the other hard drive makers are part of large Asian conglomerates (Hitachi, Samsung, Toshiba, Fujitsu) Seagate has had years of high margin SCSI / SAS drive revenue that is still the core of their business. The fact that WD has survived for two decades on razor thin consumer product margins is truly amazing. I'm with Hamish, I wouldn't bet on WD missing the next big thing.
 
Western Digital will start making a consumer SSD when the mainstream market shifts over to them. For now, a very large portion of storage devices being sold are mechanical, and WD is doing very well there, especially with the Caviar Blacks and 'Raptors. They almost certainly have a few prototype SSDs that they are tweaking with. I see them becoming a leader in that market too.
 
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