Infineon mit kleinerem Festplattencontroller am Start

Das besondere an der Kooperation zwischen Infineon und Hitachi ist, dass beide eine Festplattengeneration entwickeln, die eine senkrechte Aufzeichnung (Perpendicular Recording) und - wie schon erwähnt - eine hohe Datenrate mit sich bringen soll. Des Weiteren ist angekündigt, mit diesem Chip durch spezielle Fehlerkorrekturen die Fehlerrate einzudämmen. Bis 2007 wollen die Hersteller Speicherdichten bis zu 230 Gigabit pro Quadratzoll ermöglichen und danach auf geradem Wege auf Terabyte-Festplatten zusteuern.

Ferner entwickeln Forscher an den Universitäten in Massachusetts Speicherverfahren, die 45 Gigabyte pro Quadratzentimeter fassen sollen. Diese Speichermedien könnten dann in tragbaren Geräten wie zum Beispiel Handys, PDAs usw. eingesetzt werden.

Pressemitteilung

Infineon Announces Advanced 90nm Hard Disk Drive Read Channel Core for Next Generation High Performance HDDs Developed in Cooperation with Hitachi GST

28 Nov 2005 - Munich, Germany/San Jose, Calif. – November 28, 2005 – Infineon Technologies AG (IFX: FSE, NYSE) today announced availability of an advanced hard disk drive read channel core, the first integrated circuit (IC) implemented in the company’s 90 nanometer (nm) process technology. Developed in cooperation with Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST), the read channel core is a milestone on the path to developing high-integration controller chips for next generation hard disk drives.

" With its first 90nm read channel product Infineon is well on track to deliver the next generation of ICs for the growing HDD market,” stated Peter Bauer, member of the management board and head of Infineon’s Automotive, Industrial and Multimarket business group. “ Our commitment to the market and long presence is based on a broad IP portfolio which covers allmost all interfaces, low power and state-of-the-art SOC design methodology, as well as technologies now becoming very important to the HDD industry such as Non-volatile memories and Security Chip Card solutions.”

“ Migration to 90nm of the Infineon read channel core enables the HDD industry to meet next generation product requirements, including higher data rates, reduced power consumption and smaller die-size leading to advanced SOC solutions at competitive cost. The first tested read channel core silicon has demonstrated that the PLL is able to reach up to 3.6GHz speed and that the Analog Front-End signal path allows for datarates up to 2.7Gb/s. This is an increase of approx. 50% compared to advanced Read Channels in 130nm technologies,” said Sandro Cerato, General Manager and Vice President at Infineon ADS - ASIC and Design Solutions.

The Hard Disk Drive market is expected to grow by almost 30 percent from US Dollar 3.3bn in 2005 to US Dollar 4.5bn in 2009 according to a research by Gartner Dataquest in August 2005 mainly driven by mobile and desktop applications.

“ The development of this read channel technology further demonstrates Hitachi’s and Infineon’s innovative strengths and engineering expertise,” said Steven Smith, Senior Director & General Manager of Rochester MN, Hitachi GST. “ Infineon has demonstrated leadership in silicon development and integration and we are very pleased with the performance of our first 90nm read channel implementation.”

The new HDD controller from the Infineon ASIC and Design Solutions Group can be manufactured worldwide in multiple fabs, providing customers with supply-chain flexibility and opportunity to expand which is a very important value proposition in the hard drive industry. Fabs currently offering Infineon's 90nm technology include Infineon's Dresden fab in Germany and UMC in Taiwan.