In Re Fusion-Io, Inc. Securities Litigation 13-CV-05368

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

In Re Fusion-Io, Inc. Securities Litigation 13-CV-05368 Case5:13-cv-05368-LHK Document56 Filed08/06/14 Page1 of 62 BROWER PIVEN 1 A Professional Corporation DAVID A.P. BROWER 2 RICHARD H. WEISS 475 Park Avenue South, 33 rd Floor 3 New York, NY 10016 Telephone: (212) 501-9000 4 Facsimile: (212) 501-0300 5 Lead Counsel for Plaintiffs and the 6 Class 7 BRODSKY & SMITH, LLC EVAN J. SMITH (242352) 8 9595 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 900 Beverly Hills, CA 90212 9 Telephone: (310) 300-8425 Facsimile: (310) 247-0160 10 Liaison Counsel for Plaintiffs and 11 the Class 12 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 13 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 14 SAN JOSE DIVISION 15 16 IN RE FUSION-IO, INC. SECURITIES No. 5:13-cv-05368-LHK LITIGATION 17 CLASS ACTION 18 CONSOLIDATED CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT FOR VIOLATIONS OF 19 FEDERAL SECURITIES LAWS 20 21 22 1. Lead Plaintiffs Donald Hunt and Steve Winebrenner and Additional Plainti 23 Nick Micek and Eric Rubenstein (“Plaintiffs”) bring this federal securities class action pur 24 to Rule 23(a) and (b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, on behalf of all persons 25 26 purchased the publicly-traded common stock of Fusion-io, Inc. (“Fusion” or the “Compa 27 between October 25, 2012 and October 23, 2013, inclusive (the “Class Period”), against 28 and certain of its top executive officers during the Class Period (collectively, “Defendants”) CONSOLIDATED CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT FOR VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL SECURITIES LAWS - No. 5:13-cv-05368-LHK - 1- Case5:13-cv-05368-LHK Document56 Filed08/06/14 Page2 of 62 violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”). The claims 1 2 herein arise from a series of materially false and misleading statements and 3 concerning Fusion, its business, performance, and prospects that Defendants made to the 4 during the Class Period. 5 2. Plaintiffs allege the following based upon the investigation of Plaintiffs’ 6 which has included a review of United States Securities and Exchange Commission 7 8 filings by Fusion, securities analysts’ reports and advisories about the Company, press 9 and other public statements issued by the Company and its executives, media reports about 10 Company and its industry, and interviews with witnesses with knowledge and 11 concerning the matters alleged herein. Plaintiffs believe that substantial additional 12 support will exist for the allegations set forth herein after a reasonable opportunity for discovery. 13 14 OVERVIEW 15 3. Fusion is a computer hardware and software systems company that designs 16 manufactures products that use flash memory technology, also referred to by Fusion as 17 flash memory. According to Fusion’s Fiscal 20131 Form 10-K: 18 19 We provide solutions for enterprises, hyperscale datacenters, and small to medium enterprises, or SMEs, that accelerate databases, virtualization, mission-critical 20 applications, cloud computing, big data, and information systems. These solutions help drive business from small enterprises to Fortune Global 500 companies and 21 the world’s hyperscale leaders. Our integrated hardware and software platforms 22 and solutions enable the acceleration of data and applications in legacy, open, and proprietary architectures. Our core technology leverages flash memory to 23 significantly increase datacenter and computer-based information system efficiency, with enterprise grade performance, reliability, and manageability. We 24 25 1 Fusion’s fiscal year end is June 30 and its fiscal quarters end on September 30, December 31, 26 and March 31, and June 30. Fiscal years ended June 30, 2012; June 30, 2013; and June 30, 2014 are referred to herein as Fiscal 2012, 2013, and 2014, respectively. The quarter of each fiscal 27 year ending September 30 is referred to as the Fiscal First Quarter. The quarter ending 28 December 31 is referred to as the Fiscal Second Quarter, and the quarter ending March 31 is referred to as the Fiscal Third Quarter. CONSOLIDATED CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT FOR VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL SECURITIES LAWS - No. 5:13-cv-05368-LHK - 2- Case5:13-cv-05368-LHK Document56 Filed08/06/14 Page3 of 62 sell our solutions through a global direct sales force, original equipment 1 manufacturers, or OEMs, including Cisco, Dell, HP [Hewlett-Packard], and IBM, 2 and other channel partners. 3 4. Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer storage medium that can 4 5 electrically erased and reprogrammed. Rather than using magnetic spinning disks, flash 6 stores information electronically on silicon as positive or negative charges, mirroring 7 computers use binary code in zeroes or ones. It makes applications faster than relying on 8 disk drives. It also offers cost savings compared to disk storage because it offers more capacity 9 uses less space, has no mechanical parts, generates less heat than spinning disk storage, 10 11 requires less servicing and maintenance. Flash memory is widely used in smartphones, tablets 12 and laptops. It also is used in datacenter servers to speed up application performance. As 13 capacity of flash chips increases, for example, by shrinking the size of the cells that hold 14 electronic charges or by adding more layers to the chips, software to manage the flash 15 increasingly important to ensure that flash memory will perform as expected in enterpri 16 17 servers. 18 5. Before and during the Class Period, Fusion faced competition from 19 companies that sold flash-based products and products that incorporate flash memory and 20 was significant downward pressure on prices. An autumn 2012 report on semiconductors by 21 22 global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., Inc. explained: 23 In several product segments, such as flash memory, chips have become commoditized. Memory is a tough segment because the designs for the most 24 successful forms of memory chips are relatively simple and the design for higher 25 capacity and improved speed is relentless. Despite constant innovation, there is also constant downward pressure on prices. Between 2000 and 2008, memory 26 prices declined, on average, by 5 percent a year. 27 28 CONSOLIDATED CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT FOR VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL SECURITIES LAWS - No. 5:13-cv-05368-LHK - 3- Case5:13-cv-05368-LHK Document56 Filed08/06/14 Page4 of 62 A December 17, 2012 Computerworld article, with the headline “SSD prices continue 1 2 plunge,” reported: 3 Since 2010, solid state drive (SSD) prices for some models have plummeted from $3 to less than $1 per gigabyte. After dropping 20% in the second quarter of 2012 4 alone, SSD prices fell another 10% in the second half of the year, according to 5 data from IHS iSupply. Oversupply of NAND flash memory is primarily behind the price drops over the past couple of years . 6 An analysis in the fourth quarter of 2012 by Idealo, a price comparison service based in 7 8 Germany, concluded that in 2012 “the average price of the 50 popular SSD models 9 24%, with the average per-GB price having fallen almost €0.30” due at least in part to “the 10 improving technology which has led to the less expensive flash memory . .” According to 11 June 8, 2012 report on the blog The Memory Guy, which covers memory chips, “the 12 market is indeed oversupplied and prices are depressed” and NAND chip prices already 13 14 fallen to 35 cents per gigabyte. 15 6. Further, by 2012, other sellers of flash memory products that competed 16 Fusion were reporting reduced gross margins due to declining prices for flash. Thus, in i 17 annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended August 30, 2012, Micron Technology, Inc 18 19 (“Micron”) reported that overall gross margin percentage declined to 12% for fiscal 2012 20 20% for fiscal 2011 primarily due to significant declines in average selling prices for flash 21 other products. Micron further reported that, for its NAND Flash products, the average 22 price per gigabit of memory fell 55% in fiscal 2012 compared to fiscal 2011. Likewise, in i 23 Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 30, 2012, SanDisk Corporation (“ 24 25 reported that product gross margins decreased in fiscal 2012 compared to fiscal 2011 26 primarily to a decline of 45% in average selling price per gigabyte of memory, which 27 the cost reduction per gigabyte of only 36%. 28 CONSOLIDATED CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT FOR VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL SECURITIES LAWS - No. 5:13-cv-05368-LHK - 4- Case5:13-cv-05368-LHK Document56 Filed08/06/14 Page5 of 62 7. Augmenting the competitive pressures Fusion faced, since its initial p 1 2 offering in 2011, and continuing through the Class Period, Fusion’s business depended on 3 and concentrated purchases by a limited number of customers, most particularly Facebook, Inc 4 (“Facebook”) and Apple Inc. (“Apple”), Fusion’s two most important, strategic customers 5 Facebook and Apple, respectively, accounted for 30% and 25% of the Company’s Fiscal 2012 6 revenue and 29% and 15% of Fiscal 2013 revenue. Fusion’s 10 largest customers, including the 7 8 applicable OEM customers, provided an aggregate of 91% and 84% of its revenue in Fiscal 201 9 and Fiscal 2013, respectively. 10 8. Prior to and during the Class Period, Defendants issued a series of 11 regarding the Company’s business, performance, and prospects. Defendants represented 12 13 investors that Fusion was a market leader in large-scale flash memory applications and was 14 facing significant competitive risk from the commoditization of flash memory products and 15 downward pressure on prices. Belying Defendants’ positive public representations, 16 unbeknownst to the public, Fusion was experiencing significant competitive pressure 17 flash memory was becoming increasingly commoditized and the Company’s most 18 19 customers were seeking lower-cost alternatives. Defendants also issued positive 20 guidance for which they had no reasonable basis in light of all they knew about the compe 21 pressures the Company faced, while failing to disclose trends and uncertainties known to 22 that, if they came to fruition, would have a material adverse impact on Fusion’s business 23 operations, and financial results.
Recommended publications
  • Flash Performance for Oracle RAC with Pcie Shared Storage
    Flash Performance for Oracle RAC with PCIe Shared Storage A Revolutionary Oracle RAC Architecture Authored by: Estuate & Virident | HGST Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 1 RAC “Share Everything” Architecture ........................................................................................................... 1 Oracle RAC on FlashMAX PCIe SSDs ............................................................................................................. 3 RAC cluster with Virident | HGST FlashMAX ................................................................................................ 4 ASM and Oracle files .................................................................................................................................... 6 The Architecture Advantage ........................................................................................................................ 6 The Write Advantage (50% less I/O traffic through the network) ............................................................... 7 The Read Advantage (100% reads from local PCIe, Zero traffic through vShare network) .......................... 8 High Availability ............................................................................................................................................ 8 Performance ................................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Western Digital Acquires Virident
    Western Digital Acquires Virident Whopping $685 Million Purchase Price Disk drive maker Western Digital Corp announced on 9 September 2013 that it is buying Virident Systems, Inc. which will be merged into HGST, a wholly- owned subsidiary of Western Digital.. Virident will be acquired for approximately $685 million in cash, consisting of about $645 million in enterprise value, net of Virident’s estimated cash balance. Virident believes its integration with HGST will strengthen its marketing by leveraging HGST’s strong brand, extensive channel relationships, and global customer reach. Who is Virident? Virident is a small independent manufacturer of very high end PCIe SSDs. The company has, from the beginning, had a relentless focus on consistency of performance, which is one aspect of SSDs that has received very little attention until recently. Virident started out as a manufacturer of two high-performance dedicated appliances, one for running MySQL database software, and the other to support the open-source memcached storage network caching software. Virident and competitor Schooner both entered this market at the same time. Both found that data centers were moving away from dedicated hardware and toward virtualization, forcing both companies to revise their plans. Schooner focused on software optimization and was recently acquired by SanDisk. Virident migrated to NAND flash-based PCIe SSDs similar to, but faster than, those pioneered by Fusion-io. It was able to do this because its original appliances were based on NOR flash, a very badly-behaved technology when it comes to write cycles. Virident applied its superior understanding of flash write cycle management to NAND and achieved superior results.
    [Show full text]
  • Virtual Desktop Scalability and Performance with Vmware View 5.2 and Virident Flashmax Ii Storage
    VIRTUAL DESKTOP SCALABILITY AND PERFORMANCE WITH VMWARE VIEW 5.2 AND VIRIDENT FLASHMAX II STORAGE Whether you are planning to make the move to desktop virtualization or are looking to expand your existing virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), it is important that you choose the right software and storage for your enterprise environment. It is also vital to be able to add hardware and predictably scale your environment so that you know how many users you can expect to support as your VDI needs grow. Choosing VMware View 5.2 software with a fast and reliable internal storage solution, such as Virident FlashMAX II™ storage devices, can maximize performance, reduce latency, and scale predictably as you add users. In the Principled Technologies labs, we found that a single server running VMware View 5.2 virtual desktops with two low-profile Virident FlashMAX II storage devices could support 162 virtual desktops with nearly no latency to provide an excellent experience for end users. To verify how predictably and linearly this solution scales, we had only to add another server; two servers, each with two Virident devices, scaled perfectly to support 324 users. We also ran a storage-intensive recompose job on the desktops and found that Virident FlashMAX II devices could handle heavy maintenance jobs without sacrificing end-user performance. JANUARY 2013 A PRINCIPLED TECHNOLOGIES TEST REPORT Commissioned by VMware, Inc. and Virident Systems, Inc. MANY USERS, VERY LOW LATENCY, AND PREDICTABLE SCALABILITY The success of a virtual desktop environment is dependent on the number of enterprise users your solution supports, the performance and response times it provides for your users, and the ability to predict the number of users you can expect to support when you scale your hardware.
    [Show full text]
  • Ipr2017-00868
    United States Patent No. 7,827,370 IN THE UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE –––––––––– BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD –––––––––– SanDisk LLC Petitioner v. Memory Technologies, LLC Patent Owner –––––––––– Patent No. 7,827,370 –––––––––– PETITION FOR INTER PARTES REVIEW UNDER 35 U.S.C. § 311, 37 C.F.R. §§ 42.100 ET SEQ. United States Patent No. 7,827,370 TABLE OF CONTENTS PETITIONER’S LIST OF EXHIBITS .........................................................................iii I. MANDATORY NOTICES, STANDING, AND FEES .......................... 1 II. OVERVIEW OF CHALLENGE AND RELIEF REQUESTED ............ 2 A. Patents and Publications Relied Upon ........................................... 2 B. Grounds for Challenge ................................................................... 3 III. Background of the Technology ................................................................ 3 IV. OVERVIEW OF THE ’370 PATENT ..................................................... 6 A. Summary of the Claimed Subject Matter ...................................... 6 B. The ’370 Patent Prosecution History ............................................. 8 V. SUMMARY OF THE PRIOR ART ........................................................ 9 VI. Claim Construction ................................................................................ 11 A. Level of Skill in the Art ............................................................... 12 B. “a data register” ........................................................................... 12 C.
    [Show full text]
  • Micron: NAND Flash Architecture and Specification Trends
    NAND Flash Architecture and Specification Trends Michael Abraham ([email protected]) Applications Engineering Manager Micron Technology, Inc. Santa Clara, CA USA August 2009 1 Abstract As NAND Flash continues to shrink, page sizes, block sizes, and ECC requirements are increasing while data retention, endurance, and performance are decreasing. These changes impact systems including random write performance and more. Learn how to prepare for these changes and counteract some of them through improved block management techniques and system design. This presentation also discusses some of the tradeoff myths – for example, the myth that you can directly trade ECC for endurance Santa Clara, CA USA August 2009 2 NAND Flash: Shrinking Faster Than Moore’s Law 200 100 Logic 80 DRAM on (nm) ii 60 NAND Resolut 40 Micron 32Gb NAND (34nm) 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Semiconductor International, 1/1/2007 Santa Clara, CA USA August 2009 3 Memory Organization Trends Over time, NAND block size is increasing. • Larger page sizes increase sequential throughput. • More pages per block reduce die size. 4,194,304 1,048,576 262,144 65,536 16,384 4,096 1, 024 256 64 16 Block size (B) Data Bytes per Page Pages per Block Santa Clara, CA USA August 2009 4 Consumer-grade NAND Flash: Endurance and ECC Trends Process shrinks lead to less electrons ppgger floating gate. ECC used to improve data retention and endurance. To adjust for increasing RBERs, ECC is increasing exponentially to achieve equivalent UBERs. For consumer applications, endurance becomes less important as density increases.
    [Show full text]
  • Known Issues Third-Party Hardware and Software
    Known Issues Third-party hardware and software September 2021 This document contains all Third-party Hardware and Software that, when used together with SANsymphony, may cause unexpected behavior or impact accessibility, performance, and function. Known issues that apply to DataCore's own products are in their own release notes which are all available from the DataCore Support website. Also see Minimum Hardware Requirements https://www.datacore.com/products/software-defined-storage/tech/prerequisites/ Qualified Hardware Components http://datacore.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1529 The authority on real-time data Continued from previous page Table of Contents Changes made to this document 4 Broadcom 15 BCM57xxx 15 Intel S4510 and S4610 SATA SSD (only 1.8 TB and 3.84 TB are affected) 4 Emulex 15 Applies to all 4 Oce11102-NX/Oce10102-NX 15 Disclaimer 5 Hewlett Packard 15 Server hardware 6 All Converged Network Adaptors (CNAs) 15 CN1000Q 15 Microsoft Windows (general) 7 NC55* SFP 10 Gigabit Adaptors 16 Windows 2016 update regression 7 NC375x/NC382i/NC52x Gigabit Adaptors 16 Windows 2016/2012/2012 R2/2008 7 ProLiant BL460c (Gen10) server blades 16 Windows 2012/2012 R2 only 8 Windows 2008 R2 only 8 IBM 16 49y4250/49y7950 10GiB Adaptor 16 Cisco 9 49y4250/49y7950 10GiB Adaptor 16 Unified Computing Systems (UCS) 9 Intel 17 Fujitsu 9 x710 Chipset 17 Primergy ServerView Control Service 9 Primergy Server Agent 9 Nvidia Mellanox 18 ConnectX SmartNICs - general 18 Hewlett-Packard 9 ConnextX-5 18 Servers with Windows 2012/2012 R2 9 ConnextX-3
    [Show full text]
  • Onfi Overview
    An Update Jim Cooke NAND Marketing Micron Technology, Inc. Thursday, August 6, 2009 Outline . ONFi Overview . ONFi Provides Speed Enhancements . The Path to Higher Performance Santa Clara, CA USA August 2009 2 Thursday, August 6, 2009 Why ONFi ? . NAND was the only commodity memory with no standard interface . The Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFi) Workgroup was formed in May 2006 to drive standardization for the raw NAND Flash interface . ONFi has been busy… Santa Clara, CA USA August 2009 3 Thursday, August 6, 2009 Why ONFi ? . NAND was the only commodity memory with no standard interface . The Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFi) Workgroup was formed in May 2006 to drive standardization for the raw NAND Flash interface . ONFi has been busy… ONFi 1.0 (Dec ’06) Defined a standard electrical and protocol interface for NAND, including the base command set. Santa Clara, CA USA August 2009 3 Thursday, August 6, 2009 Why ONFi ? . NAND was the only commodity memory with no standard interface . The Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFi) Workgroup was formed in May 2006 to drive standardization for the raw NAND Flash interface . ONFi has been busy… ONFi 1.0 (Dec ’06) (Jul ’07) DefinedBlock a standard Abstracted electrical and protocol NAND interface for NAND,1.0 includingDefined the a managed base command NAND set.solution that utilizes the raw NAND interface. Santa Clara, CA USA August 2009 3 Thursday, August 6, 2009 Why ONFi ? . NAND was the only commodity memory with no standard interface . The Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFi) Workgroup was formed in May 2006 to drive standardization for the raw NAND Flash interface .
    [Show full text]
  • Onfi: Achieving Breakthrough NAND Performance
    ONFi: Achieving Breakthrough NAND Performance Amber Huffman Principal Engineer Intel Corporation Agenda ONFi Workgroup Update – Mission and membership – ONFi 2.0 specification completed – NAND connector specification completed – JEDEC collaboration established High-speed NAND interface details Extending the high-speed interface 2 Agenda ONFi Workgroup Update – Mission and membership – ONFi 2.0 specification completed – NAND connector specification completed – JEDEC collaboration established High-speed NAND interface details Extending the high-speed Interface 3 Mission… Possible. NAND has been the only commodity memory with no standard interface – Command set, timings, and pin-out are similar among vendors NAND has been ripe for standardization due to a few inflection points: – 1) Explosion in use of NAND for MP3 players, phones, caches, and SSDs – 2) Increase in number of NAND vendors serving the market (2 to 6+) ONFi Workgroup was formed in May 2006 to address “gap” – ONFI = Open NAND Flash Interface ONFi revision 1.0 delivered in December 2006, defines: – Uniform NAND electrical and protocol interface • Raw NAND component interface for embedded use • Includes timings, electrical, protocol • Standardized base command set – Uniform mechanism for device to report its capabilities to the host ONFI 1.0 sets a solid foundation for NAND (r)evolution. 4 A-Data Afa Technologies Alcor Micro Aleph One Anobit Tech. Apacer Arasan Chip Systems ASMedia Technology ATI Avid Electronics BitMicro Biwin Technology Chipsbank Cypress DataFab Systems DataIO Datalight Denali Software Entorian FCI FormFactor Foxconn Fusion Media Tech Genesys Logic Hagiwara Sys-Com HiperSem Hitachi GST Hyperstone InCOMM Indilinx Inphi Intelliprop ITE Tech Jinvani Systech Kingston Technology Lauron Technologies Lotes LSI Macronix Marvell Mentor Graphics Metaram Members Moai Electronics Molex NVidia Orient Semiconductor P.A.
    [Show full text]
  • Pcie Round Table
    SNIA SSSI - PCIe Round Table • Standards • Technology / Architecture • Deployment Strategies Presentations by: Fusion-io - Intel - Micron - Sata-IO - Seagate - Tailwind SNIA Winter Symposium SSSI Face to Face Monday 23 January 2012 Webex: https//snia.webex.com 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM Meeting No. 795 947 658 Password: sssi2012 St. Claire Hotel, San Jose CA Telecon: 1-877-270-2716 ID: 0021 Password: 8520 Agenda 1. 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM Introduction - SSS Performance Eden Kim, Chair SNIA SSS TWG 2. 10:30 AM - 10:45 AM PCIe SSD Form Factor Mark Meyers, Intel 3. 10:45 AM - 11:00 AM Standards & Deployment Models Marty Czekalski, Seagate 4. 11:00 AM - 11:15 AM SATA-IO & SATA Express - PCIe for Client Storage Paul Wassenberg, Sata-IO 5. 11:30 AM - 11:45 AM PCIe 2.5” Form Factor Janene Ellefson, Micron 6. 11:45 AM - 12:00 PM Convergence of Memory & Storage IO Architecture Moon Kim, Tailwind 7. 12:15 PM - 12:30 PM Lessons from the Front Lines & Lessons for the Future Gary Orenstein, Fusion-io 8. 12:30 PM - 1:00 PM Panel Question & Answers / Working Lunch January 2012 2 PCIe Solid State Storage - Higher Performance / Lower Latencies Solid State Storage PCIe . a Round Table What are issues facing Adoption of PCIe Solid State Storage devices? • Standards for PCIe Attached Storage • Technology & Architectural Issues • Mass Storage Ecosystem Adoption & Optimization • Market & Product Positioning • Deployment Strategies January 2012 3 SNIA PTS-C & PTS-E Specifications: Standardizing SSD Performance Test SNIA SSSI Solid State Performance Test Spec link: www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/pts
    [Show full text]
  • St D D E Bli Standards Enabling Enterprise Class Ssds P
    Stan dar ds Ena bling Enterprise Class SSDs Amber Huffman Principal Engineer MEMS001 Agenda • Enterprise NVMHCI • ONFi 3.0 • Summary 2 PCI Express* Technology SSD Trend • PCI Express (PCIe) Technology SSDs are happening – Plentiful PCIe lanes – Enables > 600 MB/s in one device – Lower latency (µsec matter) – Opportunity to minimize infrastructure cost wihdiith direct attac h Enterprise SSD Outlook by Interface Pieces K Source: Preliminary Gartner estimates, 12/09 3 Adoption Challenge • The PCI Express* (PCIe) Technology SSDs that are emerging do not have a standard host controller interface (i.e., register i/f) – This requires each vendor to provide a driver with the SSD • Lack of standard drivers is a challenge to PCIe SSD adoption – Requires each SSD vendor to provide a driver for each OS – Requires OEMs to validate each SSD with its own driver, increasing validation time and cost – Makes adoption of PCIe SSDs more difficult • To resolve this, industry leaders are defining Enterprise NVMHCI – Standard host controller interface (register programming interface) for Enterprise class PCIe SSDs – Addresses Enterprise server scenarios with a streamlined and efficient interface enabling very high IOPs 4 Industry Leaders Driving Enterprise NVMHCI The Workgroup includes 50+ member companies, contitiinuing to grow. 5 The Value of Enterprise NVMHCI “A standardized interface functions as a foundation, enabling a volume market for technology innovation while avoiding the compatibility issues that arise from multiple, proprietary interfaces. Enterprise customers are requesting standard interfaces be used on non-volatile-memory products as an enabler to assist broad adoption.” John Loveall Manager of Program Management, Storage and File Systems Microsoft 6 The Value of Enterprise NVMHCI “A standardized interface functions as a foundation, enabling a volume market for technology innovation while avoiding the compatibility issues that arise from multiple, proprietary interfaces.
    [Show full text]
  • 2016 Annual Report and Form 10-K
    Corporate Headquarters Stock Exchange Listing Delivering the possibilities of data Western Digital Corporation Western Digital’s common stock trades 3355 Michelson Drive, Suite 100 on The NASDAQ Global Select MarketSM Irvine, California 92612 under the symbol WDC. 949.672.7000 Investor Relations Worldwide Websites investor.wdc.com westerndigital.com [email protected] investor.wdc.com 800.695.6399 hgst.com sandisk.com wd.com Transfer Agent and Registrar Independent Registered Public American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC Accounting Firm Operations Center - 6201 15th Avenue KPMG LLP 2016 Annual Report Brooklyn, New York 11219 amstock.com 800.937.5449 and Form 10-K Financial and investor information is available on the company’s Investor Relations website at investor.wdc.com. Forward-Looking Statements This Annual Report contains forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, statements relating to the expectations regarding: the growth of digital data and demand for digital storage; the anticipated benefits of Western Digital’s acquisition of SanDisk Corporation and of the integration of the HGST, SanDisk and WD businesses; Western Digital’s positioning and opportunities in the storage industry; Western Digital’s investments in and development of new technologies; and Western Digital’s goal to pay down debt, attain investment grade status and continue paying dividends. These forward-looking statements are based on Western Digital’s current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results
    [Show full text]
  • Western Digital Corporation (Exact Name of Registrant As Specified in Its Charter)
    UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549 FORM 8-K CURRENT REPORT Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): October 17, 2013 Western Digital Corporation (Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter) Delaware 001-08703 33-0956711 (State or Other Jurisdiction of (Commission (I.R.S. Employer Incorporation or Organization) File Number) Identification No.) 3355 Michelson Drive, Suite 100 Irvine, California 92612 (Address of Principal Executive Offices) (Zip Code) (949) 672-7000 (Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code) Not applicable (Former name or former address, if changed since last report.) Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions: ¨ Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 240.425) ¨ Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12) ¨ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b)) ¨ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c)) Item 7.01 Regulation FD Disclosure. On October 17, 2013, Western Digital Corporation, a Delaware corporation (the “Company”), the parent company of HGST, Inc. (“HGST”), issued a press release announcing that HGST completed its acquisition of Virident Systems, Inc., a Delaware corporation. A copy of the press release is furnished herewith as Exhibit 99.1 and is incorporated herein by reference.
    [Show full text]