HDD pre-amp boasts fastest operation

High-performance, low-power pre-amplifier integrated circuit is specifically designed for use in enterprise and desktop computer hard disk drives.

Agere Systems is sampling its latest high-performance, low-power pre-amplifier integrated circuit specifically designed for use in enterprise and desktop computer hard disk drives.

Agere's new TrueStore PA7800 pre-amplifier offers exceptional performance, with the industry's fastest operating speeds topping 2.5Gbit/s while consuming nearly 30% less power in write mode than the previous-generation Agere chips.

The PA7800 enables higher capacity through its increased datarate, compatibility with a new generation of TMR heads and reduced power dissipation.

Ruediger Stroh, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Agere's Storage division, said: "This new enterprise and desktop pre-amp offers a high-performance solution to disk drive makers that demonstrates remarkable improvements in writer rise time while using innovative power-saving features to combat the extra power typically associated with increased performance".

"Agere's leading HDD IC solutions give designers the flexibility of using a single pre-amplifier across multiple drive designs, which reduces development costs and time to market, and maximises performance for head technologies that are evolving continuously".

"The TrueStore PA7800 represents yet another milestone in our drive to become the leader in silicon and systems for HDD makers".

Key to the industry-leading performance of the PA7800 is the chip's writer rise time.

This is a measure of how fast the pre-amp can switch current to the writer head for recording data on the HDD's platter, or storage media.

The writer rise time for the PA7800 provides a nearly 30% improvement over Agere's previous-generation pre-amp for this market.

The worldwide market for pre-amps is estimated at US $466 million in 2007 and is growing at a compound annual rate of 5.5%, according to IDC, an independent research firm.

An HDD's pre-amplifier is closely tied to the performance of the drive's heads and media.

As a drive "reads" analogue data from the disk drive platter, the pre-amplifier amplifies these extremely small signals before they are sent to a read-channel IC for sophisticated processing and digitisation.

A pre-amplifier is also integral to the write process by driving current through the inductive write head, which records information on the platter.

Agere expects to be in volume production with its high-performance PA7800 pre-amplifier IC by the autumn of 2007.

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