Western Digital
When Western Digital introduced its Ultrastar DC SN861 SSDs earlier this year, the company did not disclose which controller it used for these drives, which made many observers presume that WD was using an in-house controller. But a recent teardown of the drive shows that is not the case; instead, the company is using a controller from Fadu, a South Korean company founded in 2015 that specializes on enterprise-grade turnkey SSD solutions. The Western Digital Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD is aimed at performance-hungry hyperscale datacenters and enterprise customers which are adopting PCIe Gen5 storage devices these days. And, as uncovered in photos from a recent Storage Review article, the drive is based on Fadu's FC5161 NVMe 2.0-compliant controller. The FC5161 utilizes 16 NAND channels supporting...
Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs
Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming Gen 5 client SSDs and...
5 by Ganesh T S on 8/12/2024Kioxia Details BiCS 8 NAND at FMS 2024: 218 Layers With Superior Scaling
Kioxia's booth at FMS 2024 was a busy one with multiple technology demonstrations keeping visitors occupied. A walk-through of the BiCS 8 manufacturing process was the first to grab...
1 by Ganesh T S on 8/12/2024Western Digital Previews M.2 2280 PCIe 5.0 x4 NVMe Client SSDs: 15GBps at Under 7 Watts
Western Digital's FMS 2024 demonstrations included a preview of their upcoming PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 2280 NVMe SSDs for mobile workstations and consumer desktops. The Gen 5 client SSD...
8 by Ganesh T S on 8/8/2024Western Digital Teases 128 TB Enterprise SSD: BiCS8 3D QLC for AI Workloads
A week after Western Digital confirmed that it had begun sampling of its 64 TB SSDs for datacenters, the company has teased its next-generation product, a 128 TB solid-state...
5 by Ganesh T S & Anton Shilov on 8/7/2024Western Digital: We Are Sampling 32TB SMR Hard Drives
In an unexpected announcement during their quarterly earnings call this week, Western Digital revealed that it has begun sampling an upcoming 32TB hard drive. The nearline HDD is aimed...
3 by Anton Shilov on 8/2/2024Western Digital Adds 8TB Model to Popular High-End SN850X SSD Drive Family
Western Digital has quietly introduced an 8 TB version of its high-end SN850X SSD, doubling the top capacity of the well-regarded drive family. The new drive offers performance on...
19 by Anton Shilov on 7/16/2024Western Digital Rolls Out Updated Budget WD Blue SN5000 SSDs, Adds 4TB Model
Western Digital expanded its WD Blue NVMe family of budget SSDs this week with the introduction of the the WD Blue SN5000 series, an updated lineup of SSDs that...
16 by Anton Shilov on 6/20/2024Not Dead Yet: WD Releases New 6TB 2.5-Inch External Hard Drives - First Upgrade in Seven Years
UPDATE 5/17, 6 PM: Western Digital has confirmed that the new 2.5-inch T GB HDDs uses 6 SMR platters The vast majority of laptops nowadays use solid-state drives, which is...
13 by Anton Shilov on 5/16/2024Report: Seagate, Western Digital Hike HDD Prices Amid Surge In Demand
Seagate Technology has reportedly notified its customers abouts its plans to raise prices on new hard drive orders and for demands that exceed prior agreements, echoing a similar move...
11 by Anton Shilov on 4/24/2024Western Digital Previews 4 TB SD Card: World's Highest-Capacity
Western Digital this week is previewing the industry's first 4 TB SD card. The device is being showcased at the NAB trade show for broadcasters and content creators and...
15 by Anton Shilov on 4/11/2024Western Digital Ships 24TB Red Pro Hard Drive For NASes [UPDATED]
Nowadays highest-capacity hard drives are typically aimed at cloud service providers (CSPs) and enterprises, but this does not mean that creative professionals or regular users do not need them...
18 by Anton Shilov on 3/28/2024Western Digital Launches PC SN5000S SSD: Low-Cost Meets High Performance
Western Digital has introduced its new series of SSDs aimed at mainstream PCs, which combine high performance and low cost. The Western Digital PC SN5000S family of DRAM-less drives...
11 by Anton Shilov on 3/14/2024SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE Portable SSD Ecosystem Review
Western Digital had unveiled the SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE modular SSD ecosystem in mid-2022 to serve the needs of the professional market. Compact and sturdy NVMe drives (PRO-BLADE SSD Mag...
13 by Ganesh T S on 3/7/2024Western Digital Issues Update on Company Split: CEOs for Post-Split Entities Announced
Now well in the midst of executing its plan to divide itself into separate hard drive and NAND businesses, Western Digital today offered a fresh update on the state...
27 by Anton Shilov on 3/6/2024Best Internal Hard Drives: Holiday 2023
Data storage requirements have kept increasing over the last several years. SSDs have taken over the role of the primary drive in most computing systems. However, when it comes...
21 by Ganesh T S on 11/23/2023Western Digital Releases 24TB Ultrastar & Gold Hard Drives, 28TB SMR Drives Ramping
Western Digital is announcing today that it has begun volume shipments of its 24 TB hard drives based on conventional magnetic recording (CMR) to its full customer base. In...
22 by Anton Shilov on 11/16/2023Western Digital to Split HDD and NAND Businesses
Western Digital has announced its decision to split its hard disk drive and NAND memory businesses, creating two separate public companies. According to the company, the change is aimed...
12 by Anton Shilov on 10/31/2023Western Digital Releases WD_Black SN770M: M.2-2230 SSD for Consoles
Western Digital has unveiled a compact version of its WD_Black SN770 SSD, tailored mainly for handheld gaming consoles such as the Asus ROG Ally and Valve Steam Deck. The...
10 by Anton Shilov on 9/12/2023Western Digital Preps 28 TB UltraSMR Hard Drive
Western Digital is gearing up to start sampling of its 28 TB nearline hard drive for hyperscalers. The new HDD will use the company's energy-assisted perpendicular magnetic recording (ePMR...
19 by Anton Shilov on 8/1/2023