Western Digital - Key Innovations

Key Innovations

Western Digital is responsible for a number of innovations, including

• c.1971 – WD1402A, the first single-chip UART
• c.1976 – WD1771, the first single-chip floppy disk controller
• 1981 – WD1010, the first single-chip ST-506 controller
• 1983 – WD1003 hard disk controller, predecessor to ATA
• 1986 – Co-developed ATA with Compaq and Control Data
• 1986 – WD33C93, one of the first SCSI interface chips
• 1987 – WD7000, first bus-mastering ISA SCSI controller
• 1987 – WD37C65, first single-chip PC/AT-compatible floppy disk controller
• 1988 – WD42C22, first single-chip ATA hard disk controller
• 1990 – Caviar drives introduced
• 2001 – the first mass market IDE drive with an 8 MB buffer
• 2003 – the first SATA drive running at 10,000 rpm