News Releases

01/05/2007

HITACHI INTRODUCES STREAMING MEDIA SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY FOR DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDING PRODUCTS

-- Audio-Visual Storage Manager Maximizes Performance and Durability in STB/DVR Applications --

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW 2007, LAS VEGAS – January 5, 2007 – Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi) announced today it has developed new software technology targeted toward digital video recording (DVR) applications, including set-top boxes (STBs), that utilize hard disk drives. Hitachi’s AVSM™ software technology is designed to seamlessly manage the mix of high-definition video streaming and best-effort file operations, such as electronic program guides or background IPTV downloads present in STB applications. Through “smart” hard drive management, AVSM technology helps reduce duty cycle by up to 60 percent and eliminates disk fragmentation, ultimately helping to extend the life of the hard drive and the host STB system.

Today’s consumers increasingly use their digital cable and satellite set-top boxes to record high-definition programs and stream digital media from the Internet, and they want that content available throughout the house. However, recording and playing back a high number of multiple programs, or streams, can place greater demands on the hard drive and the conventional STB file system.

“Hitachi is continually looking for ways to add value to our hard disk drive solutions. We will see a steady ramp in HDTV viewership and programming in the coming years, and the demands placed on the DVR set-top box will increase significantly,” said Marcia Bencala, vice president, corporate strategy and product planning, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “Leveraging Hitachi’s R&D efforts, we’ve developed AVSM technology to be complimentary to our hard drive solutions--to help address the quality and performance issues that are faced by STB OEMs and content service providers.”

To address the heavy demands on the HDD, AVSM technology gives the STB system the ability to distinguish between streaming applications (movies, streaming media) and best-effort, non-real-time applications (electronic program guide, IPTV download, photo viewing). This helps to maintain quality of service (QoS) and protect against disk fragmentation. The AVSM software technology currently comprises a streaming file system and sophisticated I/O scheduler and ultimately makes hard drives work “smarter”. It handles the multiple HDTV streams present in multi-room households and optimizes task scheduling to help maximize HDD performance. Simply put, AVSM technology promotes:

• Exceptional hard drive reliability and longer STB service life by lowering hard disk drive duty cycle and protecting file system integrity;

• Improved QoS and highly-predictable performance in multi-stream STB applications through reduction of file system fragmentation and related performance degradation;

• Easy integration with multi-vendor support, minimal system footprint and no additional hardware resource requirement on the STB.

• The ability to manage up to 14 HDTV (19.3Mb/s) streams from one 3.5-inch HDD.

By extending the value of the hard drive, Hitachi is able to offer customers increasingly sophisticated solutions to help consumers manage and enjoy their digital content. Building on that goal, Hitachi also announced today a capacity-record one-TB CinemaStar™ hard disk drive specifically tuned for DVR applications. AVSM technology, combined with one-TB capacity continues to encourage the growth of HDTV in the home through the availability of ultra-high capacity and smart management of digital video content.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is a storage technology leader, founded in 2003 through the combination of Hitachi’s and IBM’s hard disk drive businesses. Hitachi GST enables users to fully engage in the digital lifestyle by providing high-value hard disk storage in formats suitable for the office, on the road and in the home.

With its legacy in hard drive invention, Hitachi GST led the industry in celebrating the storage technology’s golden anniversary in 2006. The hard drive has had a profound effect on the computing and consumer electronics industries after five decades of innovation. That heritage lives on at Hitachi GST today through products that define the standard for hard drive miniaturization, capacity, performance and reliability.

With approximately 30,000 employees worldwide, Hitachi GST offers a comprehensive range of hard drive products for desktop computers, high-performance servers, notebooks and consumer devices. For more information, please visit the company’s Web site at www.hitachigst.com.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 356,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2005 (ended March 31, 2006) consolidated sales totaled 9,464 billion yen ($80.9 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.