Seagate 2015 Annual Report Download - page 11
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Wealsobelievethatasharddiskdrivecapacitiescontinuetoincrease,unitdemanddoesnotreflecttheincreaseinExabytesdemand.Inrecentyears,this
trendhasresultedindemandforfewerunits,butwithhigheraveragecapacityperdrive.
IndustrySupplyBalance
FromtimetotimetheHDDindustryhasexperiencedperiodsofimbalancebetweensupplyanddemand.Totheextentthatthediskdriveindustrybuildsor
maintainscapacitybasedonexpectationsofdemandthatdonotmaterialize,priceerosionmaybecomemorepronounced.Conversely,duringperiodswhere
demandexceedssupply,priceerosionisgenerallymuted.
OurBusiness
DiskDriveTechnology
Thedesignandmanufacturingofdiskdrivesdependsonhighlyadvancedtechnologyandmanufacturingtechniquesandthereforerequireshighlevelsof
researchanddevelopmentspendingandcapitalequipmentinvestments.Wedesign,fabricateandassembleanumberofthemostimportantcomponentsfoundin
ourdiskdrives,includingread/writeheadsandrecordingmedia.Ourdesignandmanufacturingoperationsarebasedontechnologyplatformsthatareusedto
producevariousdiskdriveproductsthatservemultipledatastorageapplicationsandmarkets.Ourcoretechnologyplatformsarefocusedaroundthearealdensity
ofmediaandread/writeheadtechnologies.Usinganintegratedplatformdesignandmanufacturingleverageapproachallowsustodeliveraportfolioofdiskdrive
productstoserviceawiderangeofelectronicdatastorageapplicationsandindustries.
Diskdrivesthatwemanufacturearecommonlydifferentiatedbythefollowingkeycharacteristics:
•storagecapacity,commonlyexpressedingigabytes("GB")orterabytes("TB"),whichistheamountofdatathatcanbestoredonthediskdrive;
•spindlerotationspeed,commonlyexpressedinrevolutionsperminute("RPM"),whichhasaneffectonspeedofaccesstodata;
•interfacetransferrate,commonlyexpressedinmegabytespersecond,whichistherateatwhichdatamovesbetweenthediskdriveandthe
computercontroller;
•averageseektime,commonlyexpressedinmilliseconds,whichisthetimeneededtopositiontheheadsoveraselectedtrackonthedisksurface;
•datatransferrate,commonlyexpressedinmegabytespersecond,whichistherateatwhichdataistransferredtoandfromthediskdrive;
•input/outputoperationspersecond("IOPS"),commonlyexpressedinmegabytespersecond,whichisthemaximumnumberofreadsandwritestoa
storagelocation;
•productqualityandreliability,commonlyexpressedinannualizedreturnrates;and
•energyefficiency,commonlymeasuredbythepoweroutputnecessarytooperatethediskdrive.
Arealdensityisameasureofstoragecapacitypersquareinchontherecordingsurfaceofadisk.Thestoragecapacityofadiskdriveisdeterminedbythe
numberofdisksitcontainsaswellasthearealdensitycapabilityofthesedisks.Wehavebeenpursuing,andwillcontinuetopursue,anumberoftechnologiesto
increasearealdensitiesacrosstheentirerangeofourproductsforexpandingdiskdrivecapacitiesandreducingthenumberofdisksandheadsperdrivetofurther
reduceproductcosts.
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