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Maxtor Corp.-
Computer Storage - Category Directory
500 McCarthy Blvd.
Milpitas, California 95035
(408) 894-5000
www.maxtor.com
Sales
$4
billion
Business Description
Maxtor Corporation (“Maxtor” or “the Company”) is one of the world’s
leading suppliers of hard disk drives for consumer, industrial and
entertainment applications. We have an expansive line of storage products
for desktop computers, storage systems, high-performance servers and
consumer electronics.
We offer a broad line of hard disk drives for desktop computers, mid-line
and near-line storage sub-systems and Intel-based servers. Our desktop
products are marketed under the DiamondMax, MaXLine and Fireball brand names
and consist of 3.5-inch disk drives with storage capacities that range from
40 to 300 gigabytes. While these drives are used primarily in desktop
computers, there is an emerging market for these products in a variety of
consumer electronic applications, including personal video recorders,
set-top boxes and game consoles, as well as personal storage applications.
We also provide a line of high-capacity ATA/ Serial ATA drives for use in
mid-line and near-line storage applications for the enterprise market. Our
MaXLine-branded drives, with 250 or 300 GB of capacity, are designed
specifically for high-reliability to meet the needs of enterprise customers
who need ready access to fixed content data files. Finally, we offer a line
of high-end 3.5-inch hard disk drives for use in high-performance,
storage-intensive applications such as workstations, enterprise servers and
storage subsystems. These Intel-based server products are marketed under the
Atlas brand name and provide storage capacities of 18.4 to 147.1 gigabytes
at speeds of 10,000 RPM and 15,000 RPM.
Maxtor, DiamondMax and Atlas are registered trademarks of Maxtor. MaXLine,
Fireball, Maxtor Personal Storage, Maxtor OneTouch, and Maxtor QuickVIEW are
trademarks of Maxtor. All other brand names and trademarks appearing in this
report are the property of their respective holders.
Products
We currently offer a broad line of hard disk drives for desktop computers
and Intel-based servers. Our desktop products are marketed under the
Fireball, DiamondMax, and MaXLine brand names and consist of 3.5-inch hard
disk drives with storage capacities that range from 40 to 300 gigabytes and
speeds of 5,400 RPM and 7,200 RPM. Our desktop drives come in configurations
ranging from 1 to 4 platters per drive, allowing us to address a wide range
of applications for desktop computers, from entry level to mid-range to the
high-end. In addition, there is an emerging market for these drives in a
variety of consumer electronics applications, including set-top boxes, PVRs
and game consoles. All of these hard disk drives have a number of features
including high speed interfaces for greater data throughput, a robust
mechanical design for improved reliability, giant magneto-resistive head
technology and a digital signal processor-based electronic architecture.
Our high performance 3.5-inch hard disk drives are for use in
storage-intensive applications such as workstations, enterprise servers and
storage subsystems. These products are marketed under the Atlas brand name
and provide storage capacities of 18.4 to 147.1 gigabytes and speeds of
10,000 RPM and 15,000 RPM.
We
also offer a line of external storage products that connect to personal
computers through 1394 or USB ports and offer up to 300 gigabytes of
storage. During 2003, we introduced the Maxtor OneTouch, which incorporates
software and Maxtor’s OneTouch button to provide backup and restore
capability with the push of a button. Our Maxtor Personal Storage external
storage solutions are targeted at a range of users from the budget conscious
to high-performance enthusiasts. The devices are hot swappable and easy to
use.
Hard
Disk Industry Background
The Hard Disk Drive Market. We offer a broad line of hard disk drives for
desktop computers, mid-line and near-line storage sub-systems and
Intel-based servers. We generate the majority of our unit shipments and
revenue today from our desktop computer business, although a growing portion
of our total revenues is from sales to the Intel-based hard disk drive
server market. We also see growing demand for hard disk drives in emerging
consumer electronics applications. In addition, there is an emerging market
for high capacity ATA/ Serial ATA drives in enterprise near-line and
mid-line storage applications.
Demand for hard disk drives is driven by a variety of factors, including:
• continued improvements in desktop and enterprise computing price to
performance ratios;
• the rapid accumulation of data resulting from the digitization of
information previously stored in paper form;
• larger file sizes created by multimedia-intensive applications;
• the growth of non-branded desktop computers in emerging economies,
specifically China and other parts of Asia, Russia, Eastern Europe, and
Latin America;
• increased customer demand for emerging consumer electronics devices that
include a hard disk drive, such as personal video recorders and set-top
boxes; and
• the need to store large amounts of data that are accessed infrequently, as
in email archiving, medical images and videoclips.
Hard Disk Drive Technology. The basic operation of a hard disk drive has not
changed materially since its introduction in the 1950’s. To improve the
performance of hard disk drives, hard disk drive manufacturers have
concentrated their efforts on optimizing the performance of the various
components of the hard disk drive.
The main components of the hard disk drive are the head disk assembly and
the printed circuit board. The head disk assembly includes the head, media
(disks), head positioning mechanism (actuator) and spin motor. These
components are contained in a base plate assembly creating a
contamination-free environment. The printed circuit board includes custom
integrated circuits, an interface connector to the host computer and a power
connector.
The head disk assembly consists of one or more disks positioned around a
spindle hub that rotates the disks by a spin motor. Disks are made of a
smooth substrate to which a thin coating of magnetic materials is applied.
Each disk has a head suspended directly above or below it, which can read
data from or write data to the spinning disk. The actuator moves the head to
precise positions on the disk.
The integrated circuits on the printed circuit board typically include a
drive interface and a controller. The drive interface receives instructions
from the computer, while the controller directs the flow of data to or from
the disks, and controls the heads. The location of data on each disk is
logically maintained in tracks, divided into sectors. The computer sends
instructions to read data or write data to the disks based on track and
sector locations. Industry standard interfaces are utilized to allow the
disk drive to communicate with the computer.
A key performance metric in the hard disk drive industry is “areal density,”
which is the measure of stored bits per square inch on the recording surface
of a disk. A higher areal density allows a hard disk drive provider to
increase the storage capacity for a particular drive, or to reduce the
number of heads and/or disks to achieve the same capacity.
Hard disk drive providers are evaluating or implementing a number of
technological innovations designed to further increase hard disk drive
performance and reduce product costs. In an attempt to simplify the
electronic architecture, some hard disk drive manufacturers are combining
the traditional servo-control functions of the digital signal
processor-based electronic architecture and the error recovery and interface
management functions of traditional hard drive microprocessors on a single
integrated circuit. Moreover, to achieve timely introduction and rapid
volume production of new products consistently, some hard disk drive
providers are striving to simplify their product design processes. This
effort includes creating extendible core technology platforms, which utilize
common firmware and mechanical designs, and the re-use of manufacturing
tooling and application specific integrated circuits across various product
generations and product lines.
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