Western Digital 2009 Annual Report Download - page 16

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address the stringent embedded systems market requirements to ensure data integrity, eliminate unscheduled downtime,
protect application data and software and provide for data security and protection through our patented and patent-
pending PowerArmor», SiSMART», SolidStor»and SiSecure
TM
technologies.
Research and Development
We devote substantial resources to development of new products and improvement of existing products. We focus
our engineering efforts on coordinating our product design and manufacturing processes to bring our products to market
in a cost-effective and timely manner. Research and development expenses totaled $509 million, $464 million and
$306 million in 2009, 2008 and 2007, respectively.
Fiscal 2009 represented the eighth consecutive year of substantial growth in our research and development spending
to support our significant broadening of our product and technology portfolios. Over that eight-year period, we grew our
research and development spending 350% from $113 million in fiscal 2001 to $509 million in fiscal 2009. As a result of
this investment activity, we continue to expand our business beyond the desktop PC market into newer markets or
markets in which we have not previously participated. Such investments have allowed us to execute against our strategic
objective of revenue diversification to address the growth of new applications for hard drives and fast-growing new
market opportunities.
For an additional discussion of risks related to our development of new products, see Item 1A of this Annual Report
on Form 10-K.
Technology and Product Development
Hard drives record, store and retrieve digital data. Performance attributes of hard drives, such as their ability to
access and transmit data and storage capacity, are currently better than removable or floppy disks, optical hard drives and
tapes, and they are more cost effective than semiconductor technology. The primary measures of hard drive performance
include:
• “Acoustics” — which is the sound power emitted during hard drive operation, commonly expressed in decibels,
and perceived loudness due to sound pressure, commonly expressed in sones.
• “Data transfer rate” — which is the sustained rate of data transfer to and from the disk, commonly expressed in
gigabits per second. One gigabit equals one billion bits.
• “Seek time” — which is the time needed to position the heads over a selected track on the disk surface, commonly
expressed in milliseconds.
• “Spindle rotation speed” — which is the nominal rotation speed of the disks inside the hard drive, commonly
expressed in RPM or latency. Spindle rotation speeds commonly stated as 5,400, 7,200 and 10,000 RPM are
sometimes approximations.
• “Storage capacity” — which is the amount of data that can be stored on the hard drive, commonly expressed in
GB or TB. As defined in the hard drive industry, one GB equals one billion bytes and one TB equals one trillion
bytes. A byte is a digital character, typically comprised of eight bits. A bit is a binary digit, the smallest unit of
information in a digital system.
• “Power Consumption” — which is the amount of electricity required to operate the drive, measured in watts.
All of our hard drive products employ similar technology. The main components of the hard drive are a Head-Disk-
Assembly (“HDA”) and a Printed Circuit Board Assembly (“PCBA”). The HDA includes heads, magnetic media
(“disks”), head positioning mechanism (“actuator”) and spindle motor. A rigid base and top cover contain these
components in a contamination-controlled environment. The PCBA includes both standard and custom integrated
circuits, an interface connector to the host computer and a power connector.
HDA: One or more disks positioned around a motor-driven spindle hub that rotates the disks comprise the disk-
pack assembly. The disk is made up of a smooth substrate on which thin layers of magnetic materials are deposited. The
head stack assembly (“HSA”) is comprised of a magnetic positioner, a pivot-arm module, on which the individual heads
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