Western Digital Offers Third Generation WD PiDrive Solution
November 16 2016 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
WD PiDrive Foundation Edition Device
Accelerates Project Creation with an Affordable System Solution for
Raspberry Pi Users
WDLabs™, a business growth incubator and accelerator of storage
solutions leader Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC), today
announced availability of the WD® PiDrive Foundation Edition
products, which combine microSD™ card and USB drive functionality
with operating system installation software to provide the
Raspberry Pi® community an integrated and highly affordable storage
system solution for fast project creation.
“It is similar to about 30 years ago when hard disk drives went
mainstream in PCs - no more swapping floppy disks in and out to
load the OS, applications and data,” said Dave Chew, chief
engineer, WDLabs. “This third generation WD PiDrive solution uses a
USB HDD or USB Flash drive to run the OS and host multiple
Raspberry Pi projects instead of having to do this on a collection
of microSD cards. We have combined our technologies to work as a
team.”
Custom software, based on the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Raspbian
OS and NOOBS OS installer, is included with the new system and
provides very easy installation of OSes on the USB drive. The large
capacity of the drive enables an exclusive ‘Project Spaces’
feature, which allows installation of multiple instances of the
core OS, creating independent spaces for project creation or
support for multiple users with isolated work spaces.
“Raspberry Pi fans will absolutely love the WD PiDrive
Foundation Edition,” said Matt Richardson, Product Evangelist for
Raspberry Pi Foundation. “Not only is it a fantastic storage
solution, but its Project Spaces feature is an innovation that will
empower users with more possibilities for creation,
experimentation, and fun with Raspberry Pi.”
“We’re excited that WDLabs is tapping into Western Digital’s
full portfolio of storage technology to support the growing needs
of this market,” said Steve Campbell, executive vice president and
CTO at Western Digital Corporation. “This community’s focus on
education, invention and new product creation makes it an important
segment to seed with new tools and scalable building blocks.”
Range of new products
The WD PiDrive Foundation Edition device is offered in three
capacity versions: a 375GB disk drive, a 250GB disk drive and a
64GB flash drive. The 375GB and 250GB products include a WD PiDrive
cable that ensures optimal powering of the hard drive and Raspberry
Pi. All versions include a microSD card preloaded with the custom
NOOBS OS installer. Raspberry Pi’s official OS, Raspbian PIXEL, can
be installed directly from the microSD card (no Internet connection
required), in addition to up to five Project Spaces, depending on
capacity available. Raspbian PIXEL provides a familiar desktop
environment and includes a web browser, productivity applications,
programming tools, games and other features typically provided on
desktop computers. Project Spaces are independent portions of the
drive with Raspbian Lite, a minimal OS for building efficient yet
sophisticated solutions via command-line programming.
Price and Availability
Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price for the WD PiDrive
Foundation Edition is $37.49 for the 375GB version, $28.99 for the
250GB version and $18.99 for the 64GB flash drive version. The WD
PiDrive Foundation Edition (375GB and 250GB version) products come
with a two-year limited warranty and the 64GB flash drive version
comes with a one-year limited warranty and, along with WD PiDrive
accessories, are currently available online at wd.com.
About Western Digital
Founded in 1970, Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), Irvine,
Calif., is an industry-leading developer and manufacturer of
storage solutions that enable people to create, manage, experience
and preserve digital content. It is a long-time innovator in the
storage industry. Western Digital Corporation is responding to
changing market needs by providing a full portfolio of compelling,
high-quality storage products with effective technology deployment,
high efficiency, flexibility and speed. Its products are marketed
under the HGST and WD brands to OEMs, distributors, resellers,
cloud infrastructure providers and consumers. Financial and
investor information is available on the company's Investor
Relations website at investor.wdc.com.
Western Digital, WD and WDLabs are registered trademarks or
trademarks of Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates in the
U.S. and/or other countries. Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the
Raspberry Pi Foundation. microSD is a trademark of SD-3C, LLC. All
other marks that may be mentioned herein are the property of their
respective owners. As used for storage capacity, one terabyte (TB)
= one trillion bytes, and one gigabyte (GB) = one billion bytes.
Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating
environment. Product specifications subject to change without
notice. Not all products are available in all regions of the
world.
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WD Public RelationsHeather
Skinner949.672.7920heather.skinner@wdc.comorWestern Digital
Investor RelationsBob Blair949.672.7834robert.blair@wdc.com
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