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
SAN JOSE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Jan. 22, 2004—
Infineon Technologies (NYSE:IFX)(FWB: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 GST) has selected the Infineon
chips to enable 3Gbit/s Native SATA 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.
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) 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 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 and on the New York Stock Exchange (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.
Contact:
Infineon Technologies
Monika Sonntag, +49 89 234 22497 (Worldwide Headquarters)
monika.sonntag@infineon.com
Christoph Liedtke, 408-501-6790 (U.S.A.)
christoph.liedtke@infineon.com
Kaye Lim, +65 6840 0689 (Asia)
kaye.lim@infineon.com
Hirotaka Shiroguchi, +81 3 5449 6795 (Japan)
hirotaka.shiroguchi@infineon.com
Investor Relations,
+49 89 234 26655 (EU/APAC) or 408-501-6800 (USA/CAN)
investor.relations@infineon.com
