RC (Clint) Dyer, Vice President of Operations for Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

RC (Clint) Dyer, Vice President of Operations for Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, talks to EM Asia about his company’s position to advance the role of hard disk drives (HDD) beyond traditional computing environments to consumer electronics (CE) and other emerging applications.


EMA: What are the drivers of the HDD business?

Dyer: Right now, the HDD business is going through a major transformation in terms of technology. Its very similar to the transition that we did as being the first supplier of thin-film and MR heads, giving much advanced capability to increase data storage on HDD.

Longitudinal Magnetic Recording is reaching its last phases. To get to the higher densities, we really need to go to perpendicular recording. This requires a much more sophisticated level of sputtering media and change in the head recorder design. But the advantages are just amazing and it increases the storage capability significantly.

That’s good news from a consumer standpoint because we should be able to produce drives at a higher yield with less scrap and at a more efficient cost. On the other side, it takes a significant investment and very expensive sputtering equipment to do that. So we are working very hard to absorb that cost differential within the sputtering media.

EMA: Can you comment on miniaturization in HDD?

Dyer: We were the first producers of Microdrive and we spent a number of years developing applications for that. Now we are looking at further applications at miniaturization in the cellphone business. As phones get more and more sophisticated, consumers will want everything possible on their phones. Whether it will be one-inch or 1.8-inch as well, more and more people are finding that they want a portable PDA which requires 1.8-inch HDD.

EMA: How does design play a part?

Dyer: We launched five design studios worldwide and those design studios are to help our customers develop CE applications on the drives that we produce. As a company, Hitachi GST has one of the largest portfolios of drives in the industry. So we believe in providing the studio for them to come in and work with us on the specifications and requirements for their applications.

This will not only help them but help us in terms of expanding the CE business, which is what we are really focused on. Because Hitachi is a consumer company and our core values is essentially providing goods for society. And that’s why you have Hitachi, with well over a thousand companies, producing everything from escalators to elevators to nuclear power to consumer goods like refrigerators and air-conditioners and so forth. EMA: Tell us more about Hitachi’s mega-manufacturing facility in Shenzhen.

Dyer: Shenzhen has been the site of production of various components of HDD for well over a decade. We were the first HDD manufacturer to put high technology media into China. In fact, we had shipped our 10 millionthHDD out of that facility. And we will be shipping perpendicular recording out of there as well.

The China plant, which is called Hitachi GSP (Global Storage Products), started with 160 Gigabyte drives and they will shortly be getting to 200 to 250 Gigabyte drives. And this new plant has the latest automated equipment, including the latest advanced laminar cleaners.

In addition to that, we announced that the mega-site concept will incorporate our ‘Manufacturing-inthe- future’ strategy. This integrated supply chain strategy consolidates theentire supply chain structure, which includes our supply base within an hour-and-a-half truck drive from our factories, giving us localized support for faster flexibility and lower costs. As you know, in the consumer business, consumers change their minds very rapidly and we have to be able to respond to that.

EMA: When can we expect to see HDD in every CE product at an affordable price?

Dyer: Actually, what’s happening in the HDD industry is that more and more manufacturers are discovering what we discovered years ago. And that is that the CE segment is a very important part of the industry. This brings in additional sourcing of unique components that are miniaturized at a higher volume and lower cost. So the answer to your question is that I don’t think its too far away.