Western Digital facts for kids
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Headquarters in the Santa Teresa district of San Jose, California in 2021
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Formerly
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General Digital Corporation (1970–1971) |
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| Traded as |
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| Industry | Computer storage |
| Founded | April 23, 1970 in Newport Beach, California |
| Founder | Alvin B. Phillips |
| Headquarters |
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U.S.
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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David Goeckeler (CEO) |
| Products |
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| Revenue |  US$12.3 billion (2023) |
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Operating income
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US$-1.3 billion (2023) |
| US$-1.7 billion (2023) |
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| Total assets | US$24.4 billion (2023) |
| Total equity | US$10.8 billion (2023) |
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Number of employees
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c. 53,000 (2023) |
| Footnotes / references Financials as of June 30, 2023[update]. |
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Western Digital Corporation (often called Western Digital or WD) is an American company. It makes computer drives and data storage products. Its main office is in San Jose, California.
Western Digital designs, builds, and sells many tech products. These include devices for storing data, systems for data centers, and cloud storage services.
The company has a long history in electronics. It started as a maker of integrated circuits. Now, it is one of the biggest makers of hard disk drives. It also produces solid state drives and flash memory devices. Other big storage companies like Seagate Technology and Micron Technology are its competitors.
History of Western Digital
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Starting Out: The 1970s
Western Digital began on April 23, 1970. It was founded by Alvin B. Phillips, who worked at Motorola. The company was first called General Digital Corporation.
At first, it made equipment for testing MOS chips. It started in Newport Beach, California. Soon after, it moved to Santa Ana, California. It quickly became a special maker of semiconductors.
Around July 1971, the company changed its name to Western Digital. Its first product was a chip called the WD1402A UART.
In the early 1970s, Western Digital focused on making chips for calculators. By 1975, it was the world's largest independent calculator chip maker. But an oil crisis and the bankruptcy of a big customer hurt the company. In 1976, Western Digital had to file for bankruptcy.
Later in the 1970s, Western Digital created new products. One important chip was the FD1771. This was one of the first single chips to control floppy disk drives. This chip helped Western Digital get into the data storage business.
Growing in Storage: The 1980s
The FD1771 chip helped Western Digital enter the storage world. By the early 1980s, they were making controllers for hard disk drives. In 1983, they got a big contract from IBM. They were to provide controllers for the PC/AT computer.
That controller, the WD1003, became the base for the ATA interface. Western Digital worked with Compaq and Control Data Corporation to develop it. For most of the 1980s, these controllers brought in most of Western Digital's money.
In the mid-to-late 1980s, Western Digital tried to become a general supplier of PC parts. They bought companies that made graphics cards (Paradise Systems) and other computer chips. They also made SCSI controller chips and networking devices.
Their storage chips and disk controllers were still their biggest money-makers. In 1988, Western Digital bought the hard drive making parts of Tandon. This was a huge change. The first hard drives under Western Digital's own name were the "Centaur" series.
New Drives and Challenges: The 1990s
By 1991, the computer world was changing. People were buying fewer hard disk controller boards. That year, Western Digital launched its Caviar drives. These were new designs using the latest technology.
The Caviar drives sold very well. Because of this success, Western Digital started selling off some of its other parts. For example, its graphics card division (Paradise) was sold.
Around 1995, other companies made better drives than Caviar. Western Digital faced a tough time. New products like the Portfolio drive did not do well. The quality of Western Digital's drives also started to drop. Many people who used to like Western Digital switched to other brands.
To fix this, in 1998, Western Digital worked with IBM. This deal let Western Digital use some of IBM's special technologies. This led to the Expert line of drives in 1999. This helped Western Digital gain back trust from users.
Innovations and Growth: The 2000s
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In 2001, Western Digital was the first to offer mainstream hard drives with 8 MiB of disk buffer. Most drives at that time had only 2 MB. Western Digital called these "Special Edition" drives.
In 2003, Western Digital bought most of the assets of Read-Rite Corporation. This company made parts for hard drives. In the same year, Western Digital released the first 10,000 rpm Serial ATA hard drive. It was called the WD360GD "Raptor". It had 36 GB of storage.
In 2004, Western Digital changed its logo. In 2005, they released a 150 GB version of the Raptor. Some special versions even had a clear window to see the parts inside. Raptor drives came with a five-year warranty.
In 2006, Western Digital launched its My Book line of external hard drives. These drives looked like books. In 2007, they released a 1 TB hard drive in the My Book line.
Also in 2007, Western Digital started making energy-efficient "GP" (Green Power) drives. These drives were designed to save energy. However, they would sometimes unload their heads very often when idle. This could wear them out faster in some computer setups.
On April 21, 2008, Western Digital announced the new WD VelociRaptor drives. These were faster 10,000 rpm drives with 300 GB capacity. They were smaller (2.5-inch) but came in a 3.5-inch frame with a heat sink.
In January 2009, Western Digital shipped the first 2 TB internal hard drive. In March 2009, they entered the solid-state drive (SSD) market by buying Siliconsystems, Inc. While this first attempt didn't fully succeed, the knowledge gained helped them later.
In July 2009, Western Digital announced the first 1 TB mobile hard drive. In October 2009, they shipped the first 3 TB internal hard drive.
Big Changes and New Tech: The 2010s
In March 2011, Western Digital agreed to buy parts of Hitachi's storage unit, called HGST. This deal was worth about $4.3 billion. After this, Western Digital became the largest traditional hard drive maker in the world.
In March 2012, Western Digital finished buying HGST. To meet government rules, Western Digital sold some of its hard drive parts to Toshiba.
In December 2013, Western Digital stopped making older parallel ATA hard drives. They were the last company to make these drives for laptops and desktops.
In February 2014, Western Digital launched a new "Purple" line of hard drives. These drives are made for video surveillance systems. They are good for recording video all the time.
In October 2015, the Chinese government allowed Western Digital to fully combine with HGST. The HGST brand was slowly removed by 2018. Now, all HGST products are sold under the Western Digital name.
In May 2016, Western Digital bought SanDisk for $19 billion. SanDisk is a big name in flash memory. This was a huge step for Western Digital into the flash storage market.
In April 2017, Western Digital moved its main office to San Jose, California. In August 2017, they bought Upthere, a cloud storage company. In September 2017, they bought Tegile Systems, which makes flash memory storage systems.
In October 2017, Western Digital shipped the world's first 14 TB hard drive. In July 2018, Western Digital announced they would close their hard disk factory in Kuala Lumpur. They wanted to focus more on making flash drives.
Recent Events: The 2020s
In November 2020, Western Digital released a new consumer SSD, the WD Black SN850 1TB. It was very fast and performed better than many other SSDs at the time.
In June 2021, some users found that their old My Book Live storage drives had been erased. Western Digital told users to disconnect these devices from the internet.
In 2021 and 2023, Western Digital had talks about merging with Kioxia, a Japanese memory-chip supplier. However, these merger talks did not lead to a deal.
In February 2022, Western Digital and Kioxia reported issues at their flash memory factories. This problem affected a lot of memory output.
In March 2023, Western Digital had a cyberattack. The company took some services offline, like My Cloud, to check the problem.
In October 2023, Western Digital announced it would separate its flash memory business. This means the SanDisk part of the company will become its own company again by mid-2024.
Western Digital Products
Storage Devices
Western Digital makes many types of storage devices. These include hard drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs). They are used in computers, security cameras, gaming consoles, and other devices. They also make flash memory products for phones, laptops, and smart devices.
Western Digital also sells small microSD and SD cards.
Color-Coded Drives
Western Digital uses colors to show what each type of storage drive is best for:
| Color/brand | What it's for | Warranty (how long it's guaranteed) | |
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| WD Green | Energy-saving drives (now only SSDs) | 2 years | |
| WD Blue | Everyday desktop drives | 2 years | |
| WD Purple | Drives for Surveillance cameras (recording video) | 3 years | |
| WD Purple Pro | Advanced Surveillance drives | 5 years | |
| WD Red | Drives for NAS (home network storage) | 3 years | |
| WD Red Plus | Drives for NAS (home network storage) | 3 years | |
| WD Red Pro | Professional NAS drives | 5 years | |
| WD_BLACK | High-performance drives for gaming and fast computers | 5 years | |
| WD Gold | Drives for businesses and large computer systems | 5 years | |
| WD Ultrastar | Drives for big data centers | 5 years | |
| Internal use | Drives sold inside external USB cases | 2 to 3 years (with the case) | |
WD Green hard drives were stopped in 2015. Now, only WD Green SSDs are available.
WD Purple hard drives are made for recording video all the time. They have special tech to help prevent losing video frames.
WD Brand Products
Western Digital also sells external hard drives under the WD brand. These include the My Passport, My Book, WD Elements, and Easystore families. They now offer SSD versions of these portable drives too.
SanDisk Products
Under the SanDisk brand, Western Digital sells many mobile storage products. These include memory cards, USB flash drives, and SSDs. Most of Western Digital's flash memory products for everyday users are sold as SanDisk.
The SanDisk iXpand products are made for Apple iPhone and iPad devices. The 400 GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC card is mainly for Android smartphones.
SanDisk Professional Products
The SanDisk Professional brand offers storage products for creative people. This includes HDDs, SSDs, and systems for professionals. They work with companies like Apple and Intel.
Other Products
Western Digital used to make the WD TV series (2008-2016). These devices could play videos, pictures, and music from USB drives or networks.
Western Digital also offers the My Cloud series. These are like home media servers. They let you store and access your files from anywhere.
In 2015, Western Digital released My Cloud OS 3. This software helps connected hard drives sync files between computers and mobile devices.
The company also sells data center hardware and software. This includes the Ultrastar product line for large businesses.
Former Products
Western Digital used to make wireless routers. They stopped making these networking products in early 2014.
Company Information
Western Digital Capital is the company's investment part. It helps fund other data technology companies.
Companies Western Digital Has Bought
Western Digital has bought many companies over the years to grow its business.
| When bought | Company | What they made | Price |
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| June 29, 2007 | Komag | Hard disk parts | $1 billion |
| March 8, 2012 | HGST | Hard drives, SSDs | $3.9 billion |
| January 22, 2013 | Arkeia Software | Backup software | — |
| September 12, 2013 | sTec | SSDs | $340 million |
| October 17, 2013 | Virident | SSDs, systems, and software | $685 million |
| December 15, 2014 | Skyera | Flash storage systems | — |
| March 16, 2015 | Amplidata | Software | — |
| May 12, 2016 | SanDisk | SSDs, flash memory, embedded storage | $19 billion |
| August 28, 2017 | Upthere | Cloud storage services | — |
| September 2017 | Tegile | Flash storage systems | — |
| September 2019 | Kazan Networks | Flash storage technology | — |
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See also
In Spanish: Western Digital para niños
