Agere Systems Announces Industry's First Complete Storage Chip Set for Portable Consumer Electronics Disk Drives
January 03 2005 - 7:50AM
PR Newswire (US)
Agere Systems Announces Industry's First Complete Storage Chip Set
for Portable Consumer Electronics Disk Drives New TrueStore CE
Silicon Optimized for Small-Form-Factor Drives Providing Superior
Performance, Battery Savings, Improved Content Protection and
Reliability for Mobile Consumer Products ALLENTOWN, Pa., Jan. 3
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Targeting demand for high-capacity
storage in portable consumer electronics, Agere Systems
(NYSE:AGR.ANYSE:AGR.B) today announced a complete chip set for
developing small- form-factor disk drives. For the first time, disk
drive manufacturers have access to a full set of integrated
circuits (ICs) tailored to the power savings, small size and low
cost required to create storage devices for music players, digital
cameras, mobile phones, PDAs, notebook PCs and other consumer
electronics products. (Logo: NewsCom:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040618/AGERELOGO) Agere's
TrueStore(R) consumer electronics (CE) chip set includes read-
channel, preamplifier, motor controller and hard disk controller
solutions - the essential silicon required for developing
high-performance miniature disk drive form factors from 1.8 inches
down to 0.85 inches. Agere is also leveraging these electronics to
design highly integrated systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) that support
multiple CE-oriented host interfaces in a drive, including
multimedia card (MMC), compact flash and the new CE-ATA
specification. With read and write speeds topping 350 megabits per
second (Mbits/s), TrueStore CE solutions support today's current
storage capacities of 4.0 gigabytes in a typical 1.0-inch drive, as
well as future generations of drives with capacities up to 12
gigabytes and beyond. In addition, the complete chip set offers the
industry's lowest power consumption -- approximately 400 milliwatts
of total power under normal operating conditions -- extending
battery life vital to handheld consumer electronics designs. "With
low-voltage operation, shock resistance features, small die sizes
and speeds that are up to 50 percent faster than competing
solutions, Agere's TrueStore CE chip set and reference firmware
represent a complete solution for small-form-factor drive designs,"
said Joe O'Hare, vice president of Agere's Storage division. "These
tiny drives are the key to efficiently storing multimedia content
in everything from MP3 players to mobile phones. At larger
capacities, these drives offer a lower cost-per-gigabyte than
competing flash technologies." The market for small-form-factor
disk drives represents the biggest growth opportunity of any
storage segment. Industry analyst firm TrendFocus expects that
1.8-, 1.0- and 0.85-inch drive shipments will grow from 2.6 million
units in 2003 to 100 million units in 2008 for a compound annual
growth rate of more than 125 percent. Agere is the industry leader
in read-channels and SoCs for the fixed and portable consumer
electronics markets, and currently has design wins with every
manufacturer of 1.0-inch drives. Agere is also a contributing
member of the MMC Association and the new CE-ATA organization,
developing interface specifications for integrating disk drives in
portable consumer devices. Read-channel and hard disk controller
for new storage SoC designs Agere's TrueStore RC1100 CE
read-channel delivers the exceptional signal- to-noise ratio
performance needed to ensure data integrity during disk drive read
and write operations at higher areal densities. The channel also
offers a disk-locked clock feature enabling portable drives to
better withstand shock and vibration during operation. Building on
Agere's decade-long expertise in read-channel development, this
solution lowers chip-level power consumption while improving
overall system power management through a combination of circuit
design techniques and the use of low-leakage process technology. In
"deep sleep" mode, the RC1100 consumes up to 70 percent less power
than channels tailored for the 2.5-inch drive market. The addition
of production-proven disk controller capabilities for miniature
drives enables Agere to provide standard-product or reference-code
storage SoCs, which integrate read-channel, disk controller, memory
and other functions into a single silicon system. Powerful error
correction codes in the controller work together with the
read-channel to provide more robust signal processing, helping
drive developers boost drive capacity and yield. Agere's SoC
solutions are optimized for low power and cost with flexibility in
mind, based on an architecture that includes three megabits of
embedded data buffer memory. This unique feature can simplify the
total bill- of-materials by eliminating the need for SDRAM, further
cutting power consumption and conserving board space. In addition,
the system supports shared "dynamic" memory mapping, allowing drive
developers to customize data and instruction memory allocation.
Preamplifier and motor controller ICs Agere's new TrueStore PA1100
CE preamplifier IC delivers exceptional power management -
consuming as little as one-third the power of chips supporting
2.5-inch drives - as well as innovative head support. A disk
drive's preamp is closely tied to the performance of the drive's
magnetic heads and media, amplifying signals from the head before
being sent to storage SoCs or read- channels for processing. The
PA1100 can be used with either giant magneto- resistive (GMR) or
tunneling GMR (TGMR) heads. This preamp also supports
next-generation perpendicular recording technology for increasing
storage capacities in space-constrained small-form-factor drives.
For the TrueStore MC1100 CE motor controller, Agere has engineered
several features enabling improved reliability and shock resistance
in portable drives. Working with Agere's hard disk controller, the
motor controller offers advanced emergency retract functions that
quickly "park" the drive's heads upon sensing physical shock or a
loss of power in the drive. This significantly improves a drive's
durability and reduces the potential for data loss. With the
MC1100, drive designers can also eliminate more than two dozen
external components, thereby conserving board space and lowering
bill-of- materials. Package options, availability and pricing Space
savings is a critical requirement in these miniature drive designs,
and Agere's TrueStore CE chip set is optimized for low component
count and reduced total board space. Agere offers drive developers
a number of package and integration options, from very fine pitch
"ultra-thin" molded array packages, to stacked or offset multi-chip
modules, to chip-scale "packageless" bumped die configurations. The
read-channel and hard disk controller solutions are manufactured in
0.13-micron CMOS, with the PA1100 and MC1100 developed in
0.25-micron CMOS technology, contributing to the low cost of the
entire solution. The RC1100 and hard disk controller technology are
available now, with sample quantities of the PA1100 and MC1100
expected to ship in the first and second calendar quarters of 2005,
respectively. Pricing for the entire chip set, including firmware
and support, begins at US$10 in sample quantities. About Agere
Systems Agere Systems is a global leader in semiconductors for
storage, wireless data, and public and enterprise networks. The
company's chips and software power a broad range of computing and
communications applications, from cell phones, PCs, PDAs, hard disk
drives and gaming devices to the world's most sophisticated
wireless and wireline networks. Agere's customers include the top
manufacturers of consumer electronics, communications and computing
equipment. Agere's products connect people to information and
entertainment at home, at work and on the road -- enabling the
connected lifestyle. For more information, customers may visit
Agere's Web site at http://www.agere.com/ or contact one of Agere's
regional sales offices. Customers in the U.S. may also call the
Agere Systems Customer Response Center at 1-800-372-2447. Customers
in Canada may call 1-800-553-2448. Customers outside those
countries may call 1-610-712-4323. Fax inquiries may be directed to
1-610-712-4106, or e-mail queries to . Written inquiries should be
sent to Agere Systems, Room 10A-301C, 1110 American Parkway NE,
Lehigh Valley Central Campus, Allentown, PA, 18109, USA. Agere and
TrueStore are registered trademarks, and Agere Systems and the
Agere Systems logo are trademarks of Agere Systems Inc. This
release contains forward-looking statements based on information
currently available to Agere. Agere's actual results could differ
materially from the results stated or implied by such
forward-looking statements due to a number of risks and
uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not
limited to, our ability to keep pace with technological change, our
dependence on new product development, price and product
competition, availability of manufacturing capacity, customer
demand for our products and services, general industry and market
conditions, and our reliance on major customers and suppliers. For
a further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties,
see our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended
September 30, 2003, and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the
period ended June 30, 2004. Agere disclaims any intention or
obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040618/AGERELOGO
http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Agere Systems CONTACT: Glen
Haley, +1-610-712-1747, or +1-610-217-0781 (mobile), , or Steven
Goldsmith, +1-610-712-6737, or +1-484-553-0419 (mobile), , both of
Agere Systems Web site: http://www.agere.com/
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