WD IS BUILDING BETTER HARD DRIVES FOR THE NEW PC AND CLOUD COMPUTING ERA

Company Launches New Products, Demonstrates Future Capabilities
at Computex Taipei 2013

Kuala Lumpur – 11 June 2013 – During a press event in Taipei on 3rd June, WD®, a Western Digital company, shared its vision for the role hard drives play in the future of personal computing. Spokespersons Matt Rutledge, vice president and general manager, client computing, and Pat Wilkison, cloud products, announced two new products and described the company’s innovations in the areas of thin-and-light PC storage, solid-state hybrid drives and data center storage – all of which being a focus of WD innovation during today’s changing PC landscape and relentless global data growth.

According to WD, the PC is undergoing a transformation in form factor and feature sets, contributing to an evolving disaggregated storage model. Leading manufacturers are driving new, compelling products for consumers who are quickly adapting to the mobile advantages of smartphones and tablets, yet whose data collection and content creation habits demand the capacity of traditional hard drives. Additionally, the cornerstone of the disaggregated model is cloud datacenter, where the immense capacity that only hard drives can serve is required.

Rutledge demonstrated how hard drives could be designed in the future to enable affordable high-capacity storage in tablets and other always-on, ultra-portable and low-profile computing devices by utilizing special free-fall and shock sensors; robust mechanics; miniaturized electronics; and software intelligence that manages the use of NAND for data buffering and uninterrupted content experiences for consumers.

The company’s 5 mm thick, 2.5-inch WD Black™ SSHD is now being evaluated by OEM customers, who, with that technology, can design ultra-thin notebooks and other low-profile devices with as much as 500 GB of storage, yet for a fraction of the cost of an SSD.

WD introduced the world’s thinnest 1 TB hard drive with its new 2.5-inch WD Blue™ 7 mm hard drive, which offers OEMs, channel integrators and consumers a unique storage solution for thin and light systems, slimmer notebooks, as well as compatibility with the industry-standard 9.5 mm drive slots of mainstream notebooks.

Wilkison presented the evolving model for cloud datacenters, which are providing massive, scale-out service for social media sites, content services for mobile devices and commercial cloud storage. He outlined the tiered building blocks of today’s datacenters, dominated by the highest capacity, most reliable hard drives to facilitate annual data growth of more than 30 percent; as well as WD’s series of high-capacity and high-performance drives and where they fit in the datacenter ecosystem.

The company unveiled the first enterprise-class hard drives for scale-out datacenter market, the WD Se family of drives. Built on an enterprise-grade platform for reliable 24x7x365 datacenter operation, WD Se is tailored to deliver the right combination of performance, reliability and robustness for large-scale replicated environments, mid-sized network attached storage (NAS) deployment, and backup/archiving applications.

WD DELIVERS WORLD’S THINNEST 1 TB HARD DRIVE
New, 7 mm Slim 2.5-inch Hard Drive Delivers Industry’s Highest Capacity Storage Giving Customers a High Capacity Option for Thin and Light Mobile Devices

Kuala Lumpur – 11 June 2013 –WD®, a Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) company, announced at COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2013 it is shipping the world’s thinnest 1 TB hard drive with its new 2.5-inch WD Blue™ 7 mm hard drive. Offering OEMs, channel integrators and consumers a unique storage solution for thin and light systems, slimmer notebooks, as well as compatibility with the industry-standard 9.5 mm drive slots of mainstream notebooks, the WD Blue hard drive family, in capacities from 320 GB to 1 TB in the 7 mm height, now provides a singular option of thin design and high capacity storage.

“Users with large portfolios of content no longer need to sacrifice capacity when buying an Ultrabook or upgrading to a thin and light notebook,” said Matt Rutledge, Vice President and General Manager for client storage products at WD. “This most compact 1TB hard drive to-date offers manufacturers of systems an upsell path for their customers who will now be able to choose systems offering both sleek design and high capacity.

“Intel is introducing its fourth-generation Intel Core processor family (codenamed Haswell) to deliver faster and more efficient performance to both desktop and notebook platforms, with significant gains benefitting portable systems” said Roger Bradford, Capabilities Marketing Manager at Intel. “The release of the WD Blue 7 mm hard drives offers a new level of storage capacity that further enriches the computing experience for users of Ultrabooks, All-in-Ones and other thin and light PCs.”

“With the release of WD’s 1 TB capacity in a 7 mm drive height, Acer customers now have the best of both options and no longer have to choose between the lightness of thin, sleekly designed systems or those with high capacity storage,” said Tiffany Huang, President, PC Global Operations at Acer Incorporated.

“As ASUS develops new super-slim solutions, reliable storage options such as the WD Blue 7 mm 1 TB hard drive provide us with an ideal capacity to offer our customers,” said S.Y. Shian, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of NB Business Unit at Asus. “WD has eliminated the capacity limits heretofore endured by thin and light personal computers while keeping the reliability and data-protection of a traditional hard drive.”

Features of the WD Blue 7 mm hard drives include:
• Shock Tolerance – WD’s ShockGuard™ technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks.
• Cool and quiet – WD’s exclusive WhisperDrive™ technology enables quiet performance.
• StableTrac™ – The motor shaft is secured at both ends to compensate for system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking during read and write operations which enables consistently higher performance.
• Dual Stage Actuators – Leveraged from enterprise-class drives, dual stage actuators utilize two actuators to improve positional accuracy over the data track(s). The primary actuator provides coarse displacement using conventional electromagnetic actuator principles. The secondary actuator uses piezoelectric motion to fine tune the head positioning to a higher degree of accuracy.
• Reliable – WD’s SecurePark™ parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down, and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long term reliability due to less head wear, and improved non-operational shock tolerance.
• Compatibility Tested – WD performs tests on hundreds of systems and a multitude of platforms in its FIT Lab™ and Mobile Compatibility Lab to give customers confidence that drives will work in specific systems.

Price and Availability
Shipping now through select distributors and resellers, the new 1 TB WD Blue 7 mm 2.5-inch mobile hard drive is covered by a two-year limited warranty. MSRP for the 1 TB, model#: (WD10SPCXX) is RM 449. Additional information about WD Blue mobile hard drives and limited warranty terms may be found on the company website at http://www.wd.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=800.

ACRONIS AND AVNET JOIN FORCES
New distribution agreement inked for Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, June 6th, 2013 – Acronis®, a leading provider of disaster recovery and data protection solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, today announced it has entered into a new distribution relationship with Avnet Technology Solutions, the global IT solutions distribution leader and an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT) in Malaysia. With this agreement, Avnet will distribute Acronis solutions that provide protection for businesses threatened by potential technology disasters. Malaysia becomes the fourth country where Avnet distributes Acronis solutions to channel partners in Asia.

The unrelenting series of floods, earthquakes, and other unpredictable disasters ravaging the whole world within recent years has proven the value of a business continuity policy. It is vitally important to back up critical business data, maintain continuity and provide customer service in the wake of a natural disaster.

“Disaster recovery and data protection solutions present a tremendous revenue opportunity for value-added resellers, especially in the SMB market,” said Mr. Chiew Yue Lam, Country General Manager for Avnet Technology Solutions Malaysia, “With Acronis solutions, we will provide channel partners with the technology and resources they need to successfully address this market opportunity and help them build competitively differentiating business practices that help organisations of all sizes simplify and automate backup and disaster recovery processes, including the ability to manage geographically distributed PCs, workstations and servers. Furthermore, partners can rely on Avnet’s proven expertise through its technology solutions practices, which will help partners gain a deeper understanding of how Acronis solutions can solve customers’ business challenges.”

Mr. Bill Taylor-Mountford, President of Acronis Asia Pacific said in signing the deal: “We are pleased to be able to work with Avnet in Malaysia. With their established channel network and advanced marketing programs, we believe we will be able to extend our footprint extensively in Asia and expand our suite of disaster recovery and data protection solutions throughout Malaysia.” While introducing the core business strategies and offerings, Bill said: “Recognizing a serious shift in the needs for data protection, Acronis has expanded beyond the backup and disaster recovery market to offer virtualization, cloud and mobility solutions. Acronis is delivering a comprehensive platform strategy that allows customers to better, more simply and reliably mitigate the risk to data in today’s world, in ways no legacy vendor can.”

Under the new alliance, Avnet will sell, market and support Acronis’ suite of disaster recovery and data protection solutions to resellers and managed service providers (MSPs) throughout Malaysia. As a result, Avnet channel partners will have access to a wider range of data protection and business continuity solutions provided by Acronis.

4th Generation Intel® Core™ Ushers New Wave of 2-in-1 Devices

New Family of Processors Combines Exceptionally
Low Power Consumption with Stunning Performance

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

• First system-on-a-chip for PCs, enabling new form factors and 2-in-1 designs.
• 4th gen Intel Core processors enable 50 percent improvement in battery life, biggest gain in company history.
• 4th gen Intel Core with Intel® Iris™ graphics delivers up to double the graphics performance over the previous generation.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 4, 2013 – Intel Corporation today introduced the 4th generation Intel® Core™ processor family, reinventing personal computing as people know it today. 4th gen Intel Core delivers optimized experiences personalized for end-users’ specific needs, packing extraordinary battery life capability, breakthrough graphics and new usages in devices such as 2-in-1s, tablets, robust enthusiast and portable all-in-one systems and secure and manageable business device with Intel® vPro™.

The new Intel Core processors provide incredibly responsive, secure and powerful performance for consumers to create and consume content wherever their mobile lifestyles take them. The first chip ever built from the ground up for the Ultrabook™ and the most significant roadmap change since Intel® Centrino® technology, 4th gen Intel Core processors combine stunning PC performance with tablet-like mobility, accelerating a broad new category of 2-in-1 devices. With power levels as low as 6 watts in scenario design power, Intel is enabling thinner, lighter, cooler, quieter and fanless designs. New Intel Core processors also power designs such as all-in-one PCs with great battery life, bringing portability to the growing category. The highest-performing processor family, 4th gen Intel Core processors are capable of delivering up to 15 percent better performance than the previous generation.

“4th gen Intel Core processors offer the most significant gain in battery life enabling ever achieved by Intel, up to double the graphics and significant CPU performance improvements that are delivering exciting new consumer experiences,” said Kirk Skaugen, Intel senior vice president and PC Client Group general manager. “Today’s announcement accelerates a new category of 2-in-1 computing devices delivering the best of a notebook and a tablet in amazing new form factors. This year is the perfect time for consumers to refresh their old tablet or PC with these new 2-in-1 devices.”

Consumer and business systems based on quad-core versions of 4th gen Intel Core processors are now available. Summer availability is planned for 2-in-1s Ultrabooks, portable all-in-ones and traditional laptops and desktops. New mobile business products with 4th gen Intel® Core™ vPro™ will be available later this year. Pricing for the new Intel Core processors can be found on www.intc.com.

Low Power + Stunning Performance + Eye-Popping Graphics

Delivering Intel’s largest generation-over-generation gain in battery life enablement in company history, 4th gen Intel Core processors can bring an 50 percent improvement in battery life over the previous generation in active workloads when watching movies or surfing the Internet, and two to three times improvement in standby battery life. For some systems coming to market this year, over 9 hours of active use battery life or 10 to 13 days of standby with fresh data on a single charge is expected.

To achieve this breakthrough, Intel exceeded its expectations on power reduction at the CPU level to as low as 6 watts and also worked across the system for power optimization. These improvements range from System-on-a-Chip (SoC) and platform level technologies to Intel’s leading-edge 22nm process technology. Active power is improved as is idle power by architecting new ultra low-power processor states where the CPU consumes a fraction of the power compared to previous idle states.

The 4th generation Intel Core processors also bring the highest performance currently available in mainstream computing with the additional benefit of superior graphics support. People will be able to experience every day computing approximately two times faster; systems can wake up approximately eight times faster and users will have the ability to edit and share HD video about 20 times faster; than a similar 4-year-old computer.

Intel expanded its range of Intel graphics in the highly integrated SoC to deliver even more stunning visuals in thinner and lighter devices. Intel® Iris™ graphics, available on select SKUs of the 4th Gen Intel® Core™ processor family, delivers up to double the 3-D performance over today’s fastest mobile Intel HD Graphics solutions. Intel Iris graphics bring next-generation mobile computing devices to life with a built-in, visual experience – no extra graphics card required.

New Computing Experiences, More Peace of Mind for New Intel Core-Powered Ultrabook

The 4th gen Intel Core processor also enables a number of new computing interactions to enhance the overall user experience. 4th gen Intel Core – completely redesigned from the ground up specifically for the Ultrabook – represents a seismic shift in the compute landscape. New Intel Core raises the bar for Ultrabooks and realizes the vision Intel outlined 2 years ago to combine best-in-class performance, impressive responsiveness and battery life and built-in security in thin and elegant mobile designs. All new Ultrabooks will be touch-enabled and have Intel Wireless Display capability built in to bring natural touch and motion interactivity and speed mode for low-latency gaming on the big screen. Ultrabooks will also be hardware-ready for voice command and control, giving the user flexibility to choose the most natural and intuitive way of handling the task at hand. Ultrabooks will wake in less than 3 seconds from deep sleep and in some cases much faster, offering the nearly “instant-on” experience that people want. Ultrabooks will pull email, social media and other updates while in a low-power mode, meaning less waiting for fresh data upon waking.

Ultrabooks are also equipped with built in security capabilities including Intel Identity Protection Technology (Intel IPT) and Intel Anti-Theft Technology (Intel AT) for more computing protection. Websites partnered with Intel IPT help protect log-in information, keeping identities safe based on hardware authentication. Intel Anti-Theft Technology helps protect Ultrabooks by automatically disabling it if lost or stolen. The recently introduced McAfee LiveSafe service brings the deepest protections available by taking advantage of technology in new Intel Core processors and Intel IPT and Intel AT.

Built for the Enterprise: Business, Workstation and Intelligent Systems

To ensure the best business computing experience for both IT staff and end users, embedded features in 4th generation Intel Core vPro processors further strengthen security and increase business productivity. Available today in select business desktops, all-in-one PCs, ultra-small form factor and mobile workstation devices with future availability later this year for Ultrabook, tablet and business laptop devices, Intel Core vPro offers superior performance for secure, productive and collaborative experiences allowing end users and IT to compute with confidence.

The 4th generation Intel® Core™ processor family is also ideal for the design of high-performance, low-power intelligent systems for retail, industrial, media servers, medical and digital surveillance environments. The improved 3-D graphics and media performance deliver outstanding HD media playback for highly visual retail and digital signage applications, while new Intel AVX 2.0 instructions enable faster calculations for the rapid collection and interpretation of sound waves in an ultrasound machine. (Additional information on the 4th generation Intel Core processor family for intelligent systems is available in the news fact sheet.) It is estimated that by 2016 all TV, video-on-demand and Internet video combined may compose up to 86 percent of global consumer traffic1. Such growth requires innovation in processing technologies to help content providers deliver faster, better-quality video to consumers while at the same time radically optimizing their cloud infrastructure to serve billions of connected devices. Introduced today, the Intel® Xeon® processors E3-1200 v3 product family comes equipped with graphics featuring hardware accelerated media encode and decode technologies that allows all media and video content providers to deliver up to 4.6 times2 more videos to customers and decrease their total cost of ownership up to 64 percent2 versus traditional servers equipped with discrete graphics used today. The new microarchitecture and leading process technology also allow the lowest-power Intel® Xeon® processor ever at 13W TDP aimed at microservers and communication infrastructure. Up to 38 percent improvement in graphics performance and up to 18 percent better energy-efficient performance versus the previous generation also provide an opportunity for upgrading workstations, entry-level servers and storage solutions. (More information about new Intel® Xeon processors E3-1200 v3 product family is available in the news fact sheet.)

“B-roll featuring three lead Intel engineers on the making of 4th gen Intel Core and supporting images are available at www.intel.synapticdigital.com.”

Ultrabook Vision Realized with New 2-in-1s
Based on 4th Generation Intel Core

June 4, 2013 –Intel Corporation in May 2011 unveiled its vision to re-invent the mobile computing experience as we know it with the introduction of a new category of mobile device — called Ultrabook — that delivers the most complete and satisfying computing experience. Ultrabooks offer superior performance with great battery life, have built-in security and are ultra responsive – all in ultra sleek and sexy devices.

In June 2012, Intel advanced into the second wave of Ultrabook based on 3rd generation Intel Core processors. These Ultrabooks enhanced users’ computing experiences and enabled more choices in style and design while delivering increased responsiveness, improved power efficiency, great security and up to 2x better media and graphics. In the second half of 2012, Intel further evolved the Ultrabook experience on select systems with the introduction of touch- and voice-based experiences in traditional clamshell and convertible designs.

The introduction of 4th gen Intel Core ushers in a wave of new Ultrabook “2-in-1″ devices that deliver a PC when you need it and a tablet when you want it. Designed specifically for Ultrabook, these new systems represent a giant leap in capabilities by delivering all-day battery life with incredible performance, unprecidented graphics and touch in stunning and unique designs.

4th gen Core based Ultrabook Features

• Thin designs
  -  Ultrabook devices are 20mm or less in thickness for systems with displays smaller than 14 inches and 23mm or less for systems with displays 14 inches or larger; many systems are much thinner.
• Responsive
  - Ultrabooks wake up in a flash — going from a very deep sleep state (S4) to screen on in less than three seconds, and wake up from “sleep” mode even faster; additionally, they include SSDs or SSD caches that deliver faster access to favorite applications and data.
  - The latest Ultrabooks deliver always fresh data; waking up occasionally to pull data with minimal power consumption still allowing for more than seven1 days of standby on a single battery charge.
• Interactive
  - All Ultrabooks now have touch capabilities and also include Intel® Wireless Display (Intel WiDi) as well as support robust Wi-Fi technology. Ultrabook devices provide the ultimate interactive user experience with multi-screen touch capabilities and all of the benefits of Windows 8* technology.
  - Intel WiDi 4.1 brings ‘touch and flick’ capabilities and speed mode for low latency, low power panel refresh, and delivers smoother video play back for a cinema like movie watching experience.
• Voice Command/Control
  - Ultrabooks include a dual element array microphone which when coupled with the appropriate software, takes advantage of the local processing power to execute such voice commands as controlling media playback, updating social networks and performing Internet searches.
• Extended battery life
  - The latest Ultrabook devices are capable of offering more than six hours of full HD media playback and over nine hours of idle power.
• Security Built In
  - Intel® Anti-Theft (Intel AT) technology is a hardware-based technology that makes it possible to lock down an Ultrabook if it’s lost or stolen, secure sensitive information stored on the device’s hard drive and reactivated to full functionality if recovered.
  - Ultrabook systems come enabled with anti-virus and anti-malware protection that offer active real-time scanning and removal, as well as Intel® Identity Protection technology, which provides a more secure online experience for activities such as shopping, banking and gaming and is a more secure approach than software-only authentication.
• Fast I/O
  - Ultrabooks based on 4th generation Intel Core processors have at least one USB 3.0 port and Thunderbolt technology to enable incredibly fast transfer capabilities.

For the past two years, the Ultrabook has played an important role to help reinvigorate innovation in computing. Intel innovation and the introduction of the Ultrabook category has inspired a significant amount of new designs and capabilities. With the introduction of 4th generation Intel Core processors, Intel continues to deliver on the vision for Ultrabook as a multi-year, industry-wide endeavor to a superior computing experience.

NEW HTC ONE WINS INTERNATIONAL ACCLAIM AGAIN WITH COMPUTEX TAIPEI’S GOLD MEDAL AWARD FOR DESIGN & INNOVATION

MALAYSIA, Kuala Lumpur, June 4, 2013 – HTC, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, the global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, has won international recognition again for the new HTC One smartphone. Following the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association) award for Best New Mobile Device or Tablet, the flagship smartphone has been given the Gold Medal in Design and Innovation award from Computex Taipei 2013. Organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) in conjunction with iF (International Forum Design), the award is the highest honor in the Computex d & i awards, and was personally given HTC by Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou.

This year, out of a total of 254 product entries submitted for consideration, he jury of experts agreed that “extremely sophisticated detailing makes the new HTC One smartphone stand out from the myriad of smartphones available in this very competitive product category. The new HTC One is as much as joy to hold and touch, as to use; and is certainly the best of this year’s entries.”

“For the new HTC One to win yet another international award, it demonstrates how HTC’s proven design capabilities, both in product design and user experience, is bringing a new perspective to the industry,” said by Ben Ho, HTC CMO, “We will continue to innovate and provide consumers with the highest quality products.”

The new HTC One was awarded the GSMA’s “The Best Mobile Handset, Device, or Tablet.” It was also awarded Tech Radar’s “MWC’s Best Phone” and “Best in Show” and Mobile Geeks’ “Best Smartphone.”