LSI and Seagate Co-develop Technology for Next-Generation High-Capacity Hard Disk Drives

Industry's first 65-nanometer SoC with integrated low-density parity check (LDPC) read channel increases hard disk drive capacity and performance 

MILPITAS, Calif., June 30, 2010 – LSI Corporation (NYSE: LSI) and Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) today announced the delivery of a complex integrated read channel technology for Seagate's latest hard disk drive (HDD) products. Together, the companies have enabled the industry's first hard disk drives with low-density parity check (LDPC) read channel in 65nm process system-on-chip (SoC) technology. 

The co-development effort combines Seagate LDPC digital back-end read channel and hard drive controller IP with LSI  analog front-end read channel (RC) and physical layer (PHY) technology. The combined LDPC read channel has been incorporated into high-capacity SoC solutions that enable new levels of performance and storage capacity for leading-edge Seagate HDDs.

"The long-standing relationship between Seagate and LSI has delivered innovative, best-in-class solutions over many technology generations," said Cecil Macgregor, vice president of VLSI development, Seagate Technology. "We continue this trend with the delivery of innovative HDDs based on the industry's first 65nm SoC utilizing LDPC read channel technology." 

"Enabling faster, higher-capacity disk drives that consume less power is essential to end users, server and storage providers and HDD manufacturers," said Phil Brace, senior vice president and general manager, Storage Peripherals Division, LSI. "Together, LSI and Seagate are driving areal density improvements and raising the bar for HDD capacity and performance."

Leveraging LSI custom integration expertise, the SoCs will include LSI TrueStore® RC8000 and PHY8000 series technology with the Seagate LDPC read channel, hard disk controller IP and firmware, as well as an integrated ARM® Cortex-R4 processor from LSI. The TrueStore PHY series provides Seagate with integrated interface solutions for HDD SoC designs that are compatible with 6Gb/s SAS, 6Gb/s SATA and 4.25Gb/s Fibre Channel protocols.

The 65nm hard disk drive SoC with integrated LDPC read channel technology is available now in Seagate HDDs.

About LSI

LSI Corporation (NYSE: LSI) is a leading provider of innovative silicon, systems and software technologies that enable products which seamlessly bring people, information and digital content together. The company offers a broad portfolio of capabilities and services including custom and standard product ICs, adapters, systems and software that are trusted by the world’s best known brands to power leading solutions in the Storage and Networking markets. More information is available at www.lsi.com. 

About Seagate

Seagate is the worldwide leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions. Learn more at http://www.seagate.com