Talk:Western Digital/Archives/2019

Proposed Changes to History section

Hi, I'm a content manager at Western Digital. I would like to request changes to the History section that both simplify the content and add the requested additional citations.

I would like to propose that the existing History content for the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s be replaced with @MaryGaulke's suggestions in Mary Gaulke's Sandbox.

Mary has been working for us on Western Digital's Wikipedia articles for several years, but we are now independent.

Due to my COI, I will not be editing the page directly. I'd greatly appreciate any help and feedback. Thank you.AnneElizH (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 22:20, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

@AnneElizH: There are a lot of changes involved by this proposed replacement of 80% of the History section. On a quick review, I haven't seen anything obviously wrong with the changes, but also nothing obviously better. It's really too many changes to give just a simple yes/no to this, especially without any explanation.

If you could break this down to several small sets of changes, say by paragraph, and also give an explanation for the change (even just a short one), then I think we can make progress.

If forced to only give a single yes/no with no other comment, I'd have to go with "no". --A D Monroe III^(talk) 23:10, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

Western Digital proposed History changes to address citations/source issue

@A D Monroe III: Thank you @A_D_Monroe_III for considering these updates. Below are the requests by section (by decade in this case), but overall the explanation is that the currently published Western Digital History section has several flags indicating that additional citations from reliable sources need to be added. These proposed changes adds reliable sources where possible and removes statements where sources cannot be found. These sources for citations in the proposed updates are all listed at the bottom of this request.

These proposed changes are to the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s subsections of Western Digital’s History section:

History 1. Replace current 1970s paragraphs with proposed 1970s paragraphs which adds citations from reliable sources. The current article has several notations citing lack of citations and reliable sources.

• Replace 1970s:

1970s Western Digital was founded on April 23, 1970, by Alvin B. Phillips, a Motorola employee, as General Digital, initially (and briefly) a manufacturer of MOS test equipment. It rapidly became a speciality semiconductor maker, with start-up capital provided by several individual investors and industrial giant Emerson Electric. Around July 1971, it adopted its current name and soon introduced its first product, the WD1402A UART. The company was financed by Emerson Electric Company and investors, to sell calculator chips through the early years of the 1970s, and by 1975, Western Digital was the largest independent calculator chip maker in the world. The oil crisis of the mid-1970s and the bankruptcy of its biggest calculator customer, Bowmar Instrument,[4] changed its fortunes, however, and in 1976 Western Digital declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. After this, Emerson Electric withdrew their support of the company. Western Digital introduced several products during the late 1970s, including the MCP-1600 multi-chip, microcoded CPU. The MCP-1600 was used to implement DEC's LSI-11 system and their own Pascal MicroEngine microcomputer which ran the UCSD p-System Version III and UCSD Pascal. The processor was also used in several single-chip floppy disk drive controller chips, notably the FD1771.[5] However, the WD integrated circuit that arguably drove Western's forward integration was the 1771 chip, the first disk drive formatter/controller, replacing boards of TTL logic.

• With 1970s: 1970s[edit] Alvin B. Phillips founded Western Digital in 1970 as General Digital.[1][2] The company initially manufactured computer chips, particularly calculator chips, with start-up capital provided by several individual investors and industrial giant Emerson Electric.[3] One year later, the company adopted its current name[4] and introduced the WD1402A, the first single-chip universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART).[5] Later that decade, the company debuted a 4K RAMchip.[4] Western Digital introduced several products during the late 1970s, including the MCP-1600 multi-chip, microcoded CPU. The MCP-1600 was used to implement Digital Equipment Corporation's LSI-11 system.[6] The processor was also used in several single-chip floppy disk drive controller chips, notably the FD1771.[7]

2. Replace current 1980s paragraphs with proposed 1980s paragraphs which adds citations from reliable sources. The current article has several notations citing lack of citations and reliable sources.

• Replace 1980s:

1980s

The FD1771 and its kin were Western Digital's first entry into the data storage industry; by the early 1980s, they were making hard disk drive controllers, and in 1983, they won the contract to provide IBM with controllers for the PC/AT. That controller, the WD1003, became the basis of the ATA interface (which Western Digital developed along with Compaq and Control Data Corporation's MPI division, now owned by Seagate Technology), starting in 1986. Throughout most of the 1980s, the family of controllers based on the WD1003 provided the bulk of Western Digital's revenues and profits, and for a time generated enormous corporate growth.

Much of the mid-to-late 1980s saw an effort by Western Digital to use the profits from their ATA storage controllers to become a general-purpose OEM hardware supplier for the PC industry. As a result, Western Digital purchased a number of hardware companies. These included graphics cards (through its Paradise subsidiary, purchased 1986, which became Western Digital Imaging), core logic chipsets (by purchasing Faraday Electronics Inc. in 1987), SCSI controller chips for disk and tape devices (by purchasing ADSI in 1986), networking (WD8003, WD8013 Ethernet and WD8003S StarLAN). They did well (especially Paradise, which produced one of the best VGA cards of the era), but storage-related chips and disk controllers were their biggest money makers. In 1986, they introduced the WD33C93 single-chip SCSI interface, which was used in the first 16-bit bus mastering SCSI host adapter, the WD7000 "FASST"; in 1987 they introduced the WD37C65, a single-chip implementation of the PC/AT's floppy disk controller circuitry, and the grandfather of modern super I/O chips; in 1988 they introduced the WD42C22 "Vanilla", the first single-chip ATA hard disk controller.

1988 also brought what would be the biggest change in Western Digital's history. That year, Western Digital bought the hard drive production assets of PC hardware maker Tandon; the first products of that union under Western Digital's own name were the "Centaur" series of ATA and XT attachment drives.[citation needed]

• With 1980s:

1980s:

In the early 1980s, the company began making hard disk drive controllers. Kathryn Braun became the head of the company's storage products unit in 1982 and has been credited with driving tremendous growth of the division over the following 15 years,[8] increasing its income from $15 million to more than $2 billion.[4] In 1983, engineers at the company created a prototype in just two weeks of a controller for the IBM PC/AT.[4] The PC/AT controller debuted the next year as the first Winchester hard drive controller card.[2] Subsequently, the company shifted its focus to creating components for the growing market of personal computers.[4] In 1985, the company created the first Enhanced Small Device Interface controller board, which enabled PCs to use faster hard drives with larger capacities.[2] Storage controller products generated almost 90 percent of the company's income in that year.[4]

In the later part of the decade, Western Digital worked to position itself as an OEM hardware supplier and purchased several hardware companies.[4] These included graphics cards (through its Paradise subsidiary, purchased 1986, which became Western Digital Imaging),[9][10] core logic chip sets (by purchasing Faraday Electronics in 1987),[11] and controller chips for disk and tape devices (by purchasing Adaptive Data Systems Inc. in 1986).[12]

In 1987, Western Digital announced it would buy the hard drive production assets of PC hardware maker Tandon in order to broaden further Western Digital's range of PC equipment products.[13]The company joined the Fortune 500 the next year[4] and signed a lease in preparation for its move to Irvine, California, in 1990.[14]

3. Replace current 1990s paragraphs with proposed 1990s paragraphs which adds citations from reliable sources. The current article has several notations citing lack of citations and reliable sources.

• Replace 1990s:

1990s

By 1991, things were starting to slow down, as the PC industry moved from ST-506 and ESDI drives to ATA and SCSI, and thus were buying fewer hard disk controller boards. That year saw the rise of Western Digital's Caviar drives, brand new designs that used the latest in embedded servo and computerized diagnostic systems. Eventually, the successful sales of the Caviar drives resulted in Western Digital starting to sell some of its divisions. Paradise was sold to Philips, and since disappeared. Its networking and floppy drive controller divisions went to SMC Networks and its SCSI chip business went to Future Domain, which was later bought out by market leader Adaptec. Around 1995, the technological lead that the Caviar drives had enjoyed was eclipsed by newer offerings from other companies, especially Quantum Corp., and Western Digital fell into a slump. Products and ideas of this time did not go far. The Portfolio drive (a 3-inch (76 mm) form factor model, developed with JT Storage) was a flop, as was the SDX hard disk to CD-ROM interface. Western Digital's drives started to slip further behind competing products, and quality began to suffer; system builders and PC enthusiasts who used to recommend Western Digital above all else, were going to the competition, particularly Maxtor, whose products had improved significantly by the late 1990s. In an attempt to turn the tide in 1998, Western Digital recruited the help of IBM. This agreement gave Western Digital the rights to use certain IBM technologies, including giant magneto-resistive (GMR) heads and access to IBM production facilities. The result was the Expert line of drives, introduced in early 1999. The idea worked, and Western Digital regained respect in the press and among users, even despite a recall in 2000 (which was due to bad motor driver chips). Western Digital later broke ties to IBM.

• With 1990s:

1990s

In 1990, Western Digital debuted its first 3.5-inch Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) drive in its Caviar line. Three years later, the company progressed to "Enhanced IDE", which exceeded 528MB-throughput and allowed users to attach optical and tape drives to the unit.[2] Despite the success of the Caviar line, the company struggled during this period, as did the computing industry in general.[4] During a 15-month period in 1990 and 1991, the company lost $172 million and downsized some properties and staff. Four of the six major disk-drive manufacturers also reported losses during this time.[15] Charles A. Haggerty, an executive at IBM, became the company's president in 1992;[16] he later became CEO. In 1998, Braun, the highest-paid female executive in Orange County, retired as the company's president and chief operating officer.[8] Also in 1998, Western Digital forged a new partnership with IBM. This agreement gave Western Digital the rights to use certain IBM technologies, including giant magneto-resistive (GMR)heads.[4]

4. Replace current 2000s paragraphs with proposed 2000s paragraphs which adds citations from reliable sources. The current article has several notations citing lack of citations and reliable sources.

• Replace 2000s

2000s In 2001, Western Digital became the first manufacturer to offer mainstream ATA hard disk drives with 8 MiB of disk buffer. At that time, most desktop hard disk drives had 2 MB of buffer. Western Digital labeled these 8 MB models as "Special Edition" and distinguished them with the JB code (the 2 MB models had the BB code). The first 8 MB cache drive was the 100 GB WD1000JB, followed by other models starting with 40 GB capacity. Western Digital advertised the JB models for cost-effective file servers. In October 2001, Western Digital restated its prior year results to reflect the adoption of SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No.101 and the reclassification of Connex and SANavigator results as discontinued operations.[6] In 2003, Western Digital acquired most of the assets of bankrupt one-time market leading magnetic hard drive read-write head developer Read-Rite Corporation. In the same year, Western Digital offered the first 10,000 rpm Serial ATA HDD, the WD360GD "Raptor", with a capacity of 36 GB and an average access time of less than six milliseconds. Soon, the 74 GB WD740GD followed, which was also much quieter. In 2004, Western Digital redesigned its logo for the first time since 1997, with the design of new logo focusing on the company's initials ("WD").[7] In 2005, Western Digital released the 150 GB version, the WD1500, which was also available in a special version with a transparent window enabling the user to see the drive's heads move over the platters while the drive read and wrote data. As of 2004, the Western Digital Raptor drives have a five-year warranty, making them a more attractive choice for inexpensive storage servers, where a large number of drives in constant use increases the likelihood of a drive failure. n 2006, Western Digital introduced its My Book line of mass market external hard drives that feature a compact book-like design. On October 7, 2007, Western Digital released several editions of a single 1 TB hard drive, the largest in its My Book line. In 2007, Western Digital acquired magnetic media maker Komag. Also in the same year, Western Digital adopted perpendicular recording technology in its line of notebook and desktop drives. This allowed it to produce notebook and desktop drives in the largest classes of the time. Western Digital also started to produce the energy efficient GP (Green Power) range of drives. In 2007, Western Digital announced the WD GP drive touting rotational speed "between 7200 and 5400 rpm", which is technically correct while also being misleading; the drive spins at 5405 rpm, and the Green Power spin speed is not variable.[8] WD GP drives are programmed to unload the heads whenever idle for a very short period of time.[9] Many Linux installations write to the file system a few times a minute in the background.[10] As a result, there may be 100 or more load cycles per hour, and the 300,000 load cycles rating of a WD GP drive may be exceeded in less than a year.[11] On April 21, 2008, Western Digital announced the next generation of its 10,000 rpm SATA WD Raptor series of hard drives. The new drives, called WD VelociRaptor, featured 300 GB capacity and 2.5-inch (64 mm) platters enclosed in the IcePack, a 3.5-inch (89 mm) mounting frame with a built-in heat sink. Western Digital said that the new drives are 35 percent faster than the previous generation. On September 12, 2008, Western Digital shipped a 500 GB 2.5-inch (64 mm) notebook hard drive which is part of their Scorpio Blue series of notebook hard drives. On January 27, 2009, Western Digital shipped the first 2 TB internal hard disk drive.[12] On March 30, 2009, they entered the solid-state drive market with the acquisition of Siliconsystems, Inc. On July 27, 2009, Western Digital announced the first 1 TB mobile hard disk drive, which shipped as both a Passport series portable USB drive as well as a Scorpio Blue series notebook drive.[13] In October 2009, Western Digital announced the shipment of first 3 TB internal hard disk drive, which has 750 GB-per-platter density with SATA interface.[14]

• With 2000s:

2000s

In 2003, Western Digital acquired most of the assets of bankrupt, formerly market-leading magnetic hard drive read-write head developer Read-Rite Corporation.[17] Within seven months, the acquisition added to the company's earnings, nine months ahead of schedule.[18] In the same year, Western Digital offered the first 10,000 rpm Serial ATA HDD, the Raptor, with a capacity of 37 GB. While the company designed the Raptor for enterprise applications, it also became popular with gamers. The Raptor X followed in 2006, with a capacity of 150 GB and a transparent window offering a look at its inner workings.[2]

In 2006, Western Digital introduced its My Book line of mass market external hard drives that feature a compact book-like design.[19] Later additions increased its capacity to 1 TB and then 2 TB.[20][21]

In 2007, Western Digital acquired thin-film media maker Komag.[22] Also in the same year, the company announced it had created a hard drive with a record-setting density of 520 GB per square inch with the use of perpendicular recording and tunneling magneto-resistive technology.[23] Western Digital also started to produce the energy-efficient Green Power (GP) range of drives.[24]

In 2008, Western Digital announced a new generation of its 10,000 rpm SATA WD Raptor series of hard drives. The new drives, called WD VelociRaptor, featured 300 GB capacity and 2.5-inch (64 mm) platters enclosed in the IcePack, a 3.5-inch (89 mm) mounting frame with a built-in heat sink.[25]

In 2009, Western Digital shipped the first 2 TB internal hard disk drive.[26] A few months later, the company entered the solid-state drive market with the acquisition of SiliconSystems.[27] A few months after that, the company announced the first 1 TB mobile hard disk drive.[28]

In October 2009, Western Digital announced the shipment of the first 3 TB internal hard disk drive, which has 750 GB-per-platter density with SATA interface.[29]

5. References: Add Sources for above subsections’ citations 1. "Where in the World Wide Web Is Al Phillips?". IEEE Spectrum. 1 May 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2019. 2. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Farrance, Rex (13 September 2006). "Timeline: 50 Years of Hard Drives". PCWorld. Retrieved 2 January 2019. 3. ^ Harris, Robin (28 June 2018). "Western Digital shakes up data storage". ZDNet. Retrieved 3 January 2019. 4. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j "Western Digital Corp. History". Funding Universe. Retrieved 3 January 2019. 5. ^ "Chip Hall of Fame: Western Digital WD1402A UART". IEEE Spectrum. 30 June 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2019. 6. ^ "Western Digital adds MCP-1600 Micro". Computerworld: 26. 26 November 1975. Retrieved 3 January 2019. 7. ^ Michalopoulos, Demetrios A (October 1976). "New Products: Single-chip floppy disk formatter/controller". Computer. 9 (10): 64. doi:10.1109/C-M.1976.218414."The FD1771 is a single-chip floppy disk formatter/controller that interfaces with most available disk drives and virtually all types of computers." 8. ^ Jump up to:a b Huffstutter, P.J. (21 August 1998). "Western Digital Executive Gives Kingdom for a Life". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 9. ^ "Acquisition Completed by Western Digital Corp". Los Angeles Times. 5 December 1986. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 10. ^ Takahashi, Dean (6 July 1990). "Suit Says Western Digital Violated Graphics Patents". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 11. ^ "Briefs". Network World. 11 May 1987. p. 10. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 12. ^ Feibus, Michael (17 July 1986). "Western Digital Set to Acquire Pomona Firm". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 13. ^ Olmos, David; Bates, James (8 December 1987). "Western Digital Will Buy Tandon's Hard-Disk Manufacturing Business : Seen as Move to Broaden Computer Products Line". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 14. ^ Flagg, Michael (22 January 1988). "Irvine Co. Signs Western Digital to $60-Million Lease". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 15. ^ Takahashi, Dean (19 January 1992). "Tough Times Challenging Western Digital Chairman". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 16. ^ Markoff, John (27 May 1992). "COMPANY NEWS; I.B.M. Executive Is Named President of Western Digital". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 17. ^ Smith, Tony (24 July 2003). "Western Digital buys up Read-Rite assets". The Register. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 18. ^ "Read-Rite buy pays off for Western Digital". San Francisco Business Times. 28 August 2003. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 19. ^ Ngo, Dong (15 June 2006). "My Book Premium Edition review". CNET. Retrieved 16 January2019. 20. ^ Smith, Tony (3 October 2006). "Western Digital ships 1TB RAID-able external HDD". The Register. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 21. ^ Melanson, Donald (24 July 2007). "Western Digital rolls out 2TB My Book external hard drives". Engadget. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 22. ^ Auchard, Eric (28 June 2007). "Disk drive consolidation as Western buys Komag". Reuters. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 23. ^ Fallon, Sean (17 October 2007). "Western Digital Announces Record Breaking Hard Drive Density". Gizmodo. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 24. ^ Rothman, Wilson (23 July 2007). "Western Digital Launches Efficient GreenPower Drives, From 320GB to 1TB". Gizmodo. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 25. ^ Wilson, Mark (21 April 2008). "Western Digital Velociraptor Is New "Fastest Hard Drive Ever"". Gizmodo. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 26. ^ "Western Digital launches 2TB hard drive". ZDNet. January 27, 2009. Retrieved January 27,2009. 27. ^ Hruska, Joel (30 March 2009). "Western Digital goes solid state, acquires SiliconSystems". Ars Technica. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 28. ^ Murph, Darren (27 July 2009). "WD ships industry's first 2.5-inch 1TB hard drive". Engadget. Retrieved 16 January 2019. 29. ^ "WD's New 3TB Drive Packs More Storage Than 32-Bit Can Handle". WIRED. Retrieved January 22, 2016. Thank you again for your help and consideration.

(~~~~) — Preceding unsigned comment added by AnneElizH (talk • contribs)

This is not what was asked for. The proposed changes are sweeping, replacing every single paragraph with new text. What was asked for was an explanation for each change, item by item.

Note that this is the way WP commonly works: changes are small and specific with an edit comment itemizing and justifying the specific change; large changes replacing the bulk of sections is only made when the existing text is agreed to be clearly substandard in total, and the editor has developed a trust with other editors of being an unbiased expert in the subject. (Even then, there's bound to be a lot of discussion on the talk page before it's fully accepted by other editors.) I know this isn't an efficient process from a business perspective, but WP is a volunteer organization, and relies on a more grass-roots process that often wanders very far from efficiency.

Thus, given the COI potential negating any automatic editor trust, the proposed bulk changes cannot be accepted without detailed justification for each of the changes, as was stated in the previous talk section. In response, what was given just above is the very same mass of changes broken only separated by section, all with the exact same justification of adds citations from reliable sources repeated for each section. First, repeating the same justification for all changes in no way helps to itemize the changes. Second, the given justification does not seem sufficient; the changes do not just add sources, but remove current sources and replace virtually all of the text. Again, not what was asked for.

Still, I spent quite some time trying going through the proposed changes. In the end, I found I don't have the bandwidth to do all the research in the sources as required to figure out the root of each of the very long list of individual changes proposed.

So, as it stands, I cannot accept these massive changes with the minimal and misleading justification given.

I still want to make progress on this, but I must admit defeat in being able to work with what's given above. To make progress, I suggest starting over; ignore the whole massive change as an all-or-nothing single proposed edit, and, if sources are truly the sole issue here, base each change on a source -- providing something like this:

1. Give a source
2. Quote the relevant part of the source (summarize if long to ensure staying clear of copyright questions)
3. Quote the old text (should be no more than a sentence or two)
4. Quote the propose change (also a sentence or two)

For any proposed changes that are not strictly based on a specific source (as at least some of the proposed changes appear to be as far as I could get into them), I suggest still following something close to the above steps. Such changes can be allowed (this is how the article reached its current state) but are going to be heavily scrutinized in light of the question of COI.

I urge you to start with only a single small change to ensure we have a process that can be used to move forward on the rest of the changes.

Basically, you're going to have to make it easy on us to get this accepted, rather than have WP editors do most of the tedious double-checking work.

I hope this better explains what is being asked for, and why. If still not sufficiently explained, just ask/comment in response in this talk section.

To any other interested WP editors, if you feel you have the bandwidth and inspiration to contribute or even take this large task over, you are welcome to do so.

--A D Monroe III^(talk) 20:53, 5 June 2019 (UTC)