SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HGST (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and now a Western Digital company) (NASDAQ:WDC) today announced that it is shipping its new Endurastar J4K320 family, a single-platter hard disk drive (HDD) specifically designed for the automotive infotainment and telematics markets. As HGST’s sixth generation automotive HDD, the new Endurastar J4K320 family is based on proven technology, provides the industry’s highest automotive HDD capacity at 320GB (220% more capacity than its predecessor) and is built to operate in extreme and varying temperatures and altitudes.

The requirements for automotive-class hard drives are quite different from hard drives designed for personal computers or other stationary consumer electronic devices. These drives must go through a stringent qualification process as in-car manufacture installations or after-market solutions can face the most extreme conditions – from high altitudes in the Alps to searing heat in the Sahara Desert. The Endurastar J4K320 operates at altitudes of up to 5500 meters (18,044.62 feet), supports an operating temperature range of -30°C to +85°C (-22°F to 185°F), and has improved operating shock tolerance of 300G (2ms) and a non-operating shock of 800G (ms) for extra reliability and data protection when driving on damaged or unpaved roads.

In early 2006, HGST was granted a patent for its Thermal Fly-height Control (TFC) feature, which can compensate the head/media distance variations caused by altitude and temperature changes. In order to provide its customers with the quality level expected in the automotive segment, HGST has designed and tested the Endurastar J4K320 HDD beyond most industry specifications. The Endurastar J4K320 is HGST’s second-generation automotive HDD to apply TFC.

“For many years, Mitsubishi Electric has turned to HGST Endurastar automotive hard disk drives to meet the needs of car multimedia systems,” said Hiroyuki Morikane, general manager, SANDA WORKS of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. “From the very first automotive grade models through the current Endurastar J4K100 series, HGST HDDs have met our requirements for excellent performance and high reliability. Mitsubishi Electric looks forward to qualifying HGST’s new J4K320 automotive drive as we believe it is the ideal solution for OEM automotive customers who require high capacity and superior quality in a storage device. Backed by HGST’s attention to quality, cost, flexible delivery and customer support, we expect the J4K320 to become the next chapter in our long history of a strong business partnership.”

“HGST has been working with the automotive industry for nearly two decades to develop the right hard drive products for use in cars,” said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, HGST. “These onboard systems integrate a combination of entertainment (video, audio, radio), navigation, connectivity, security services, diagnosis and much more to help provide a seamless in-car user experience. The combination of these services, especially navigation, requires reliable and durable storage for the supporting application software, as well as the needed capacity to store end-user content. As our sixth generation automotive drive, our new Endurastar J4K320 drive family continues to deliver on the needed requirements, and provides long-term data stability and reliability for the automotive market.”

The Endurastar J4K320 family comes in 320GB, 250GB, 200GB, 100GB and 80GB capacities, operates at 4260 RPMs and features a SATA interface for easy design configuration flexibility. The drive family is based on a standard 9.5mm 2.5-inch form factor for simple integration into many new and traditional system designs. This allows OEMs and system integrators to take advantage of its ruggedness, huge capacity, low power idle and low-RPM performance to deliver new high-quality, high-capacity, power-efficient systems for the automotive markets.

The HGST Endurastar J4K320 family is currently shipping. For more information, please visit http://www.hgst.com/hard-drives/automotive-and-industrial-drives.

About HGST

HGST, a Western Digital company (NASDAQ:WDC), develops innovative, advanced hard disk drives, enterprise-class solid state drives, external storage solutions and services used to store, preserve and manage the world’s most valued data. HGST addresses customers’ rapidly changing storage needs by delivering intelligent storage devices that tightly integrate hardware and software to maximize solution performance. Founded by the pioneers of hard drives, HGST provides high-value storage for a broad range of market segments, including Enterprise, Cloud, Data Center, Mobile Computing, Consumer Electronics and Personal Storage. HGST was established in 2003 and maintains its U.S. headquarters in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit the company’s website at http://www.hgst.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to expected availability dates for HDD and/or SSD storage products. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including changes in markets, demand, uncertainties related to the development, introduction, and timing of products based on new technologies, and other risks and uncertainties listed in Western Digital's recent SEC filings to which your attention is directed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak on as of the date hereof, and HGST/WD undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

One GB is equal to one billion bytes, and one TB equals 1,000 GB (one trillion bytes). Actual capacity will vary depending on operating environment and formatting.

Endurastaris a registered trademark of HGST, Inc. and its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.