Western Digital's Suppliers Performance

The main components of the hard drive are a Head-Disk-Assembly (“HDA”) and a Printed Circuit Board Assembly (“PCBA”).
The HDA includes heads, magnetic media, head positioning mechanism (“actuator”) and spindle motor. A rigid base and top cover contain these components in a contamination-controlled environment. One or more disks positioned around a motor-driven spindle hub that rotates the disks comprise the disk-pack assembly. The disk is made up of a smooth substrate on which thin layers of magnetic materials are deposited. The head stack assembly (“HSA”) is comprised of a magnetic positioner and a pivot-arm module on which the head gimbal assemblies ("HGAs"), including suspension, are mounted. Each disk surface has a head suspended directly above it, which can read data from or write data to the spinning disk. Other key components of our hard drives are pre-amps and voice coil magnets.

The PCBA includes both standard and custom integrated circuits, an interface connector to the host computer and a power connector. The integrated circuits on the printed circuit board typically include a power device that controls the motor and HSA positioner, and a System-on-Chip (“SoC”) comprised of a drive interface, controller and recording channel. The drive interface receives instructions from the host computer, while the controller directs the flow of data to or from the disks and controls the heads. The location of data on each disk is logically maintained in concentric tracks divided into sectors. The host computer sends instructions to the controller to read data from or write data to the disks, based on logical track and sector locations. Guided by instructions from the controller, the HSA pivots in an arc across the disk until it reaches the selected track of a disk, where the data is recorded or retrieved.

We design and manufacture a substantial portion of the heads and magnetic media required for our products. Consequently, we are more dependent upon our own development and execution efforts and less able to take advantage of head and magnetic media technologies developed by other manufacturers. We depend on an external supply base for all remaining components and materials for use in our HDD product design and manufacturing.

The key components used in the manufacture of our SSDs are the NAND semiconductor media and SoC which are acquired from third party suppliers. The NAND flash products used in our SSDs are sourced from multiple tier-one NAND manufacturers. We have established deep relationships with these vendors to assure continuous supply of NAND, as well as sufficient technical depth of technology access to enable continuous cost and technology leadership of our SSD product portfolio offering. Additionally, we are exploring strategic options to further strengthen and deepen our collaboration with select NAND partners to support the future growth of our SSD business. Additionally, the key component in our media players, the controller, is acquired from third party suppliers.
We believe that our sourcing strategy currently enables us to have the business flexibility needed to select the highest quality, low cost of ownership suppliers as product designs and technologies evolve. We generally retain multiple suppliers for each of our component requirements but in some instances use sole sources for business reasons.

The main components of the hard drive are a Head-Disk-Assembly (“HDA”) and a Printed Circuit Board Assembly (“PCBA”).
The HDA includes heads, magnetic media, head positioning mechanism (“actuator”) and spindle motor. A rigid base and top cover contain these components in a contamination-controlled environment. One or more disks positioned around a motor-driven spindle hub that rotates the disks comprise the disk-pack assembly. The disk is made up of a smooth substrate on which thin layers of magnetic materials are deposited. The head stack assembly (“HSA”) is comprised of a magnetic positioner and a pivot-arm module on which the head gimbal assemblies ("HGAs"), including suspension, are mounted. Each disk surface has a head suspended directly above it, which can read data from or write data to the spinning disk. Other key components of our hard drives are pre-amps and voice coil magnets.

The PCBA includes both standard and custom integrated circuits, an interface connector to the host computer and a power connector. The integrated circuits on the printed circuit board typically include a power device that controls the motor and HSA positioner, and a System-on-Chip (“SoC”) comprised of a drive interface, controller and recording channel. The drive interface receives instructions from the host computer, while the controller directs the flow of data to or from the disks and controls the heads. The location of data on each disk is logically maintained in concentric tracks divided into sectors. The host computer sends instructions to the controller to read data from or write data to the disks, based on logical track and sector locations. Guided by instructions from the controller, the HSA pivots in an arc across the disk until it reaches the selected track of a disk, where the data is recorded or retrieved.

We design and manufacture a substantial portion of the heads and magnetic media required for our products. Consequently, we are more dependent upon our own development and execution efforts and less able to take advantage of head and magnetic media technologies developed by other manufacturers. We depend on an external supply base for all remaining components and materials for use in our HDD product design and manufacturing.

The key components used in the manufacture of our SSDs are the NAND semiconductor media and SoC which are acquired from third party suppliers. The NAND flash products used in our SSDs are sourced from multiple tier-one NAND manufacturers. We have established deep relationships with these vendors to assure continuous supply of NAND, as well as sufficient technical depth of technology access to enable continuous cost and technology leadership of our SSD product portfolio offering. Additionally, we are exploring strategic options to further strengthen and deepen our collaboration with select NAND partners to support the future growth of our SSD business. Additionally, the key component in our media players, the controller, is acquired from third party suppliers.
We believe that our sourcing strategy currently enables us to have the business flexibility needed to select the highest quality, low cost of ownership suppliers as product designs and technologies evolve. We generally retain multiple suppliers for each of our component requirements but in some instances use sole sources for business reasons.