Five new hard disk drive (HDD) and solid-state drive (SSD) solutions purpose-built for console and PC gamers to optimize game storage capacity, portability and accessibility 

Story Highlights

• New WD_Black™ products dedicated to gamers who face the dreaded challenge of choosing which of their favorite games to sacrifice when they reach the storage capacity limit of their gaming station
• Building on the WD_Black™ SN750 NVMe™ SSD, the five new external solutions are thoughtfully designed and created to be the gamer’s wingman in battle, partner in crime and teammate on the bench

SAN JOSE, Calif. & COLOGNE, Germany–(BUSINESS WIRE)–(GAMESCOM) – Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), today introduced a portfolio of external storage solutions for PC and console gamers to enable access to new engaging experiences and capture more winning gameplay, without maxing out their gaming storage. The solutions include a first-to-industry SuperSpeed USB (20Gb/s), USB 3.2 gen 2×2 port in a game drive.

Use Case

Games on the market today use the latest in graphics technologies, taking advantage of immersive environments such as augmented and virtual reality. These modern applications call for higher performance and file sizes, with some games approaching or exceeding file sizes of 100GB. This presents a challenge for gamers who don’t want to sacrifice their current favorite games while trying out the latest games on the market.

Building on top-tier performance of the WD_Black™ SN750 NVMe™ SSD currently on the market, the five new solutions have been thoughtfully designed and purpose-built to address these storage challenges, all based on recognized Western Digital quality and reliability. They provide the performance, capacity and reliability to help PC and console gamers to drive their game and play without limits. With WD_Black SSDs offering boosted loading screen speeds, gamers can get back to what they love: winning.

By teaming up with Microsoft, some of the new solutions offer up to three months of membership of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to give gamers access to a curated library of over 100 great games to discover on console and PC, as well as all the benefits of Xbox Live Gold.**

“We constantly hear from gamers about how the performance and capacity limitations of their current systems challenge the quality of their gaming experiences,” said Susan Park, vice president of product management, content solutions, Western Digital. “We are helping make room for the latest releases, whether a gamer has been playing for years or is just starting out and looking for a high-performance edge. With the latest additions to our WD_Black™ portfolio, anyone from the casual to hardcore gamer can now capture a variety of games, in one accessible place.”

Product Details

New products in the WD_Black gaming portfolio are:

• WD_Black™ P10 Game Drive:
  • HDD with up to 5TB² – holds up to 125 games¹
  • Portable form factor with a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port
  • High-performance to optimize the console or PC gaming experience
  • Three-year limited warranty
• WD_Black™ P50 Game Drive:
  • SSD featuring a first-to-industry USB 3.2 gen 2×2 port for a game drive with speeds up to 2000MB/s*
  • Up to 2TB² of additional storage to keep cherished games and save new ones
  • Five-year limited warranty
• WD_Black™ D10 Game Drive:
  • HDD comes with up to 8TB² capacity – holds up to 200 games¹
  • Speeds up to 250MB/s* and rated at 7200RPM with active cooling technology
  • Three-year limited warranty
• WD_Black™ D10 Game Drive for Xbox One:
  • HDD comes with up to 12TB² to save and grow an Xbox One gaming collection – holds up to 300 games¹
  • Included for free with purchase is a three-month membership of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate**
  • Speeds up to 250MB/s* and rated at 7200RPM with active cooling technology
  • Three-year limited warranty
• WD_Black™ P10 Game Drive for Xbox One:
  • HDD with up to 5TB² – holds up to 125 games¹
  • Two-month membership of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate included with purchase, giving access to 100+ game titles on Xbox One and PC, as well as Xbox Gold Live
  • High-performance to help optimize the Xbox One gaming experience
  • Three-year limited warranty

Check it out

• The WD_Black portfolio will be showcased at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany at the following areas:
  • Entertainment Area – Hall 10.1 | Stand E-051
  • B2B Area/TRADEVISITOR PLACE – Hall 2.2 D-042

Pricing and Availability

The WD_Black P10 Game Drive comes in capacities of 2TB up to 5TB and ranges from $89.99 up to $149.99 MSRP USD in the U.S. The WD_Black P10 Game Drive is currently available at select Western Digital retailers, e-tailers, resellers, system integrators, and the WD store. The WD_Black P10 Game Drive for Xbox One will come in capacities of 3TB up to 5TB and ranges from $109.99 up to $149.99 MSRP USD in the U.S. The WD_Black D10 Game Drive 8TB capacity is $199.99 MSRP USD in the U.S. The WD_Black D10 Game Drive for Xbox One 12TB capacity is priced at $299.95 MSRP USD in the U.S. All prices vary depending on model and capacity. The WD_Black P10 Game Drive for Xbox One, the WD_Black D10 Game Drive and the WD_Black D10 for Xbox One will be available this quarter. The WD_Black P50 Game Drive is expected to be available in calendar Q4.

Enabling the possibilities of data, Western Digital offers the industry’s broadest portfolio of products and solutions to help people capture, preserve, access and transform their content. For more information, visit our website: www.wdblack.com

Resources

• www.wdblack.com
• Pull quotes:
  • Western Digital:“We are tackling common gaming storage challenges to help make room for the latest releases, whether a gamer has been playing for years or is just starting out and looking for a high-performance edge. With the latest additions to our WD_Black™ portfolio, anyone from the casual to hardcore gamer can now capture a variety of games, in one accessible place.”

About Western Digital

Western Digital creates environments for data to thrive. As a leader in data infrastructure, the company is driving the innovation needed to help customers capture, preserve, access and transform an ever-increasing diversity of data. Everywhere data lives, from advanced data centers to mobile sensors to personal devices, our industry-leading solutions deliver the possibilities of data. Western Digital data-centric solutions are comprised of the Western Digital®, G-Technology™, SanDisk® and WD® brands.

¹Number of games based on a 36GB average per game. The number of games will vary based on file size, formatting, other programs, and factors.

²As used for storage capacity, 1GB = 1 billion bytes and 1TB = one trillion bytes. Actual user capacity may be less, depending on operating environment.

*Based on read speed, unless otherwise specified. As used for transfer rate, megabyte per second (MB/s) = one million bytes per second. Performance will vary depending on your hardware and software components and configurations.

**Available for a limited time. See product packaging for full details.

Western Digital, the Western Digital logo, G-Technology, SanDisk, WD, WD_BLACK and the WD_BLACK logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and/or other countries. The NVMe word mark is a trademark of NVM Express, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Product specifications subject to change without notice. Pictures shown may vary from actual products. Not all products are available in all regions of the world.

© 2019 Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates. All rights reserved

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including the expected pricing, availability, benefits, capabilities, capacity, performance and/or other features of the WD_BLACK™ branded products. There are a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate including, among others: changes to specifications from standards organizations, volatility in global economic conditions; business conditions and growth in the storage ecosystem; impact of competitive products and pricing; market acceptance and cost of commodity materials and specialized product components; actions by competitors; unexpected advances in competing technologies; our development and introduction of products based on new technologies and expansion into new data storage markets; risks associated with acquisitions, mergers and joint ventures; difficulties or delays in manufacturing; and other risks and uncertainties listed in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including the company’s most recently filed periodic report, to which your attention is directed. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Contacts

T. Peter Andrew

Western Digital Corporation

Investor Relations

949.672.9655

peter.andrew@wdc.com

Heather Davis

Western Digital Corporation

Public Relations

949.672.7920

heather.davis@wdc.com

James Fitzhenry Named CEO to drive next generation optics technology

PORTLAND, Ore.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Abom,® Inc., an optics technology company that designs, manufactures and sells advanced active anti-fog eyewear and goggles for the outdoor sports, military and industrial markets (www.abom.com), announced today that technology industry veteran James A. Fitzhenry has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer and that Jack Cornelius, the Company’s co-founder, will become the Company’s President. Fitzhenry is a Portland resident and spent eight years as Executive Vice President, President and CEO of test and measurement equipment company Schmitt Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMIT). Prior to joining Schmitt, Fitzhenry spent 15 years as a senior executive at FLIR Systems (Nasdaq: FLIR). He has served on both public and private company boards and will also serve as Chairman of Abom’s Board of Directors. Jack Cornelius is co-founder of Abom along with David McCulloch, and has served in a number of capacities, including CEO. His focus as President will include further expanding the Company’s extensive library of intellectual property and accelerating technology and product development, including the integration of visual and locational sensor and AR data into its goggles and other eyewear designs.

“Abom is at an exciting inflection point as the Company works to expand its markets, including sales to the US Military, and its product capabilities, including the integration of optical sensor data such as infrared imaging and augmented reality onto the lens by virtue of a heads-up display design. My focus will be on helping to ensure that the Company can successfully execute on its strategic goals,” commented Fitzhenry.

About Abom, Inc.

Abom, Inc. (the Company) designs, manufactures and sells ballistics rated active anti fog goggles for the outdoor sports, military, and industrial markets. The Company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

For more information, visit www.abom.com.

Contacts

Bryan Greear

bryan@abom.com

(503) 430-5494

On-Demand Classes and Virtual Reality Training Program makes the future of learning and skills training accessible to all

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#createthefuture—Singularity University (SU), a global community with a mission to educate, inspire and empower leaders to apply exponential technologies to address humanity’s grand challenges, announced today availability of its two newest products,

• On-Demand Classes, affordable, bite sized, learning on topics such as such as security and hacking, artificial intelligence and human healing, and
• Uncommon Learning, a personally adaptive virtual reality (VR) training system with first of a kind integrated neuroadaptive features.

On-Demand Classes, a new series of online content, is made up of 2-3 hour classes developed by global experts in conjunction with SU around specific areas of expertise.

“The pace of change will never be slower than it is today, and humans will experience unprecedented changes in their lives in the next decade,” said Tammy Lakes, executive vice president of online learning and digital business at SU. “With On-Demand Classes SU is able to educate, inspire and provide deeper insight into these changes on a scale that is affordable and global.”

On-Demand Classes will be updated monthly on SU.org and start at $100. Current available classes include:

• Surpassing Limitation with Khalil Osiris and Dr. Makaziwe Mandela
• How-to-Hack for Kids…and Executives with Nico Sell
• Symbiotic Systems: Designing an Inclusive Future with John Wise
• Transforming Business With Nature with Francisco D’Elia

Uncommon Learning is a personally adaptive virtual reality training system where users will learn new skills in an immersive environment and their training experience will be modified based on individual performance as well as biometric data including brain response, heart rate and eye tracking.

“We all learn differently; even individual needs change moment by moment, and yet traditional training methods are rigid and remained unchanged for decades, ” said Kyle Nel, executive vice president of Uncommon Partners Lab. “Uncommon Learning combines immersive virtual reality with adaptive features made possible with neuroscience and machine learning technologies to create a holistic training system that is more effective and drives higher employee confidence and performance.”

Integrated adaptive features maintain optimal user engagement by automatically slowing down during moments of stress or becoming challenging if the user appears to be bored, this amplifies the effectiveness over and above that seen in typical VR training alone. Skills are learned faster and with greater retention, resulting in higher performance, improved safety and employee satisfaction. The system can be deployed across any industry.

Uncommon Learning is currently accepting applications for VR training. To learn more about the program or to apply, visit su.org/enterprise/uncommon-partners-lab.

ABOUT SINGULARITY UNIVERSITY

Singularity University (SU) is a global learning and innovation community using exponential technologies to tackle the world’s biggest challenges and build a better future for all. SU’s collaborative platform empowers individuals and organizations across the globe to learn, connect, and innovate breakthrough solutions using accelerating technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital biology. A certified benefit corporation headquartered in Silicon Valley, SU was founded at NASA Research Park in 2008 by renowned innovators Ray Kurzweil and Peter H. Diamandis with program funding from leading organizations including Google, Deloitte, and UNICEF. To learn more, visit SU.org, read the SU Blog, join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @SingularityU, and download the SU App.

Contacts

Adolph Hunter, Adolph.hunter@su.org