Agere Systems named world leader in integrated circuits for hard disk drives and SONET/SDH networking equipment by industry analyst firm LDC - Business - Brief Article

Mobile Internet, The, May, 2003

Agere Systems announced that it has been named the world leader in integrated circuits (IC) for hard disk drives and SONET/SDH multiservice networking equipment, according to new reports by industry analyst firm IDC. Agere increased market share in both technology segments, climbing from No. 3 positions in 2001 to No. 1 in 2002. JDC's reports list Agere's share for hard disk drive ICs at 22 percent of the 2002 worldwide storage semiconductor market and 23 percent of the SONET/SDH semiconductor market.

SoC Expertise Key to Storage IC Leadership Storage ICs control the transfer, manipulation and retrieval of data in hard disk drives. Along with leadership in storage ICs overall, Agere was also the top provider of storage preamplifiers and system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions. In its first year tracking storage SoCs as a segment, IDC cites Agere's market share at 63 percent.

SoCs are the key industry trend in the storage semiconductor market. SoCs provide higher levels of integration by combining multiple storage semiconductor functions on a single silicon device. This helps hard drive makers simplify their drive designs, improve reliability, reduce power consumption and ease manufacturing - while lowering drive costs. Agere introduced its first storage SoCs in 2001, and has shipped more than 70 million units to date. Agere's read-channel technology, which is embedded in its SoC solutions, can be found in more than 50 percent of hard disk drives shipping today.