WD Introduces Fast and Rugged Solid State Drives for Notebooks and Desktop PCs

Sydney, Australia: March 15, 2010 — WD® today announced that the company is shipping its first consumer-oriented solid state drive (SSD) with the new WD SiliconEdge™ 2.5-inch SSD family. WD SiliconEdge Blue™ SSDs offer fast read/write speeds and high SSD capacities, making them an ideal storage solution for read-intensive applications requiring high performance and plug-and-play compatibility.

WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs, in capacities up to 256 gigabytes (GB), feature a native SATA 3.0 gigabits per second (Gb/s) interface with read speeds up to 250 megabytes per second (MB/s) and write transfer rates up to 170 MB/s. Fast and rugged, WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs accelerate application performance and deliver maximum tolerance for drops, shock and vibration along with silent and low-power operation.

“The development of the WD SiliconEdge Blue product family leverages WD's extensive experience in designing and manufacturing highly reliable storage products and the company’s worldwide sales and distribution network to accelerate SSD technology adoption by OEMs, technology enthusiasts, gamers and road warriors," said Michael Hajeck, senior vice president and general manager of WD's solid state storage business unit. “Customers who demand the ultimate in performance will find the WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs exceed all their requirements.”

The new WD SiliconEdge Blue product family has passed WD’s extensive functional integrity testing procedures, which subjected the WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs to over 250, 000 hours of testing to ensure they meet the industry’s highest data integrity, reliability and compatibility standards. Designed for both read-intensive client/consumer applications and write-intensive, 24/7 OEM applications, WD’s new multi-level cell (MLC) -based SSDs feature patented and patent-pending technologies, such as advanced wear-leveling and error correction control, as well as TRIM and NCQ (Native Command Queuing) command support to ensure maximum drive performance and endurance with easy plug and play compatibility.

Price and Availability
Manufacturer: Western Digital
Product Name: WD SiliconEdge Blue
RRP:
WD SiliconEdge Blue SSD 64 GB (model SSC-D0064SC-2100) AU$ 349, NZ$ 459
WD SiliconEdge Blue SSD 128 GB (model SSC-D0128SC-2100) AU$ 649, NZ$ 869
WD SiliconEdge Blue SSD 256 GB (model SSC-D0256SC-2100) AU$ 1,229, NZ$ 1,629
Website: www.westerndigital.com
Warranty: Three-year limited warranty
Availability: Now

About WD
WD, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. Its advanced technologies are configured into applications for client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own consumer storage and media products.

WD was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading OEMs, systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.

PR Contact
Renato Catalan
Gap Marketing and Management Pty Ltd
Website: www.gapmarketing.com.au