Infineon Technologies Announces New System-On-a-Chip for Disk Drives: Hitachi GST to Use Custom Chip with Embedded Read Channel and 3Gbit/s Serial ATA Interface.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2004 Infineon Technologies (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :IFX IFX - ["Type Reconstruction with First-Class Polymorphic Values", J. O'Toole et al, SIGPLAN Notices 24(7):207-217 (Jul 1989)]. )(FWB (Fixed Wireless Broadband) See fixed wireless. :IFX) today announced the availability of a new generation of highly integrated System-On-Chip (SOC) devices, manufactured using Infineon's advanced 0.13micron process, that integrates a 1.6 Gigabit-per-second (Gbit/s) read channel core, a 3 Gbit/s Native Serial ATA (S-ATA(TM)) interface, a 16-bit microcontroller, a hard disk controller, embedded memory and a quality monitoring system. The company also announced that Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. Summary Hitachi purchased IBM's hard disk drive division, integrated their own HDD operations, and launched the company in 2003. (Hitachi GST GST abbr. Greenwich sidereal time GST (in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada) Goods and Services Tax ) has selected the Infineon chips to enable 3Gbit/s Native SATA (Serial ATA) A serial version of the ATA (IDE) interface, which has been the de facto standard hard disk interface for desktop PCs for more than two decades. The original Parallel ATA (PATA) interface was launched in 1986. capabilities in future versions of its Deskstar hard disk drives. Hitachi GST was founded in 2003 as a result of the strategic combination of the storage technology businesses of Hitachi and IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) . Hitachi GST offers customers worldwide the most comprehensive range of storage products for desktop computers, high-performance servers and mobile devices. The company began shipping its Deskstar 7K250 desktop hard drive with a 1.5Gbit/s SATA interface earlier this year. Hitachi GST continually delivers technology advancements that boost the feature set and performance characteristics of its hard disk drives. Employing an integrated 3Gbit/s SATA chip in future versions of Hitachi Deskstar drives is expected to increase data throughput and tighten integration at the printed circuit board (PCB PCB: see polychlorinated biphenyl. PCB in full polychlorinated biphenyl Any of a class of highly stable organic compounds prepared by the reaction of chlorine with biphenyl, a two-ring compound. ) level. The new Infineon chips will also use low power, which is a critical design factor in many of today's hard disk drives. "We all know how important time-to-market is in the hard drive industry," said Mr. Sandro Cerato, general manager and vice president at Infineon. "Having achieved the combined goal of providing a 3Gbit/s SATA SOC solution with an embedded read channel in first-silicon demonstrates Infineon's capabilities and expertise as a provider of high-volume, custom chips." "Infineon has demonstrated leadership in silicon integration and we are pleased to be incorporating their technology into our desktop hard drives," said Bob Holleran, vice president and general manager, Desktop Business Unit, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "We are moving to an integrated 3Gbit/s SATA chipset technology because it allows us to maximize data throughput, use less power and reduce PCB complexity." The new Infineon SOC devices are targeted for high-volume, cost competitive desktop hard drives and can be easily optimized for power sensitive applications, as soon as SATA becomes the de-facto standard hard drive interface. "Today, customers require solutions with increased performance, lower cost and a higher level of integration. Infineon achieves all of these requirements with this latest product generation," stated Dr. Reinhard Ploss, group vice president at Infineon. Using the flexibility of Infineon's 0.13micron process, the new generation chips from the Infineon ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. and Design Solutions Group can be manufactured worldwide in multiple fabs, allowing customers additional supply-chain flexibility and opportunity to expand. This is a very important value proposition in the hard drive industry, especially for high-volume applications like mobile and desktop PCs. Fabs currently offering Infineon's 0.13micron technology include ALTIS in France, a joint venture operated with IBM, Infineon's Dresden 12" fab in Germany and UMC in Taiwan. About Infineon Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for the automotive and industrial sectors, for applications in the wired communications markets, secure mobile solutions as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In fiscal year 2003 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 6.15 billion with about 32,300 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange Frankfurt Stock Exchange The largest of Germany's eight securities exchanges, operated by Deutsche Borse AS. and on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com. This news release is available online at http://www.infineon.com/news/ (TM) -- S-ATA is a trademark of Infineon Technologies North America Corp. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion