IDEMA thanks Seagate for sponsoring this symposium.

8:30 am

Kick-off and Introduction: History of IDEMA Committee and Long Data Sectors
Dr. Ed Grochowski, Consultant

This session will review today’s 512-bytes standard, in the context of an HDD sector, and the formation of an IDEMA committee to address the advantages of a longer sector length. The exact proceedings of this committee, as part of IDEMA’s standards mission, will be discussed leading to a result of an ultimate sector length of 4096 bytes for the industry. The process of selection of this 4K byte standard and the concurrences of major HDD developers will be outlined followed by a general discussion of a potential implementation path which could be followed to achieve adoption of the new standard. Formation of a second committee to study an optimum implementation path for the application of LDS for an overall industry use will also be outlined.

8:50 am

Session 1: HDD Developers Long Data Sector Implementation Strategy

Principal HDD developers will be called upon to present their respective LDS implementation strategies based on individual product plans and business requirements. Each will be asked to give a realistic assessment of adopting 4K LDS as an ultimate goal and how their implementation strategy will facilitate adoption of the 4K-byte standard. The relative pro’s and con’s of each strategy will be presented as well as a detailed discussion of emulation and logical/native approaches. If available, testing results of HDD’s with LDS will be presented as part of the discussion. A general discussion of the phase over period, when both 512-byte and LDS HDD products will co-exist will be given to assist the user.

Session Chair:

Dr. Martin Hassner, Hitachi GST
Dr. Martin Hassner, Hitachi GST: Long Data Sector White Paper Technical Summary
Joe Wach, Senior Director, Seagate: Large Sector Development
Curtis E. Stevens, Technologist, Western Digital: 4K Sectors: Is Compatibility Required
Yoichiro Tanaka, Director, Hard Disk Drive Product Planning, Storage Device Division, Toshiba: Leading Innovations in Extended Data Sectors – A Toshiba Perspective

10:50 am

Break

11:10 am

Session 2: HDD Controller Design and Implementation for Long Data Sectors

The technical rationale for migration to LDS will be discussed from an error correction code (ECC) viewpoint as well as the handling of larger burst error correction and HDD performance advantages. Why it is necessary to extend sector length to 4K bytes at this time and what beneficial results may be expected by using HDD designs with LDS? The results of modeling and theoretical analyses of studies on LDS will be presented to justify application of the new standard, and any impacts of using HDD’s with LDS which must be accounted for in application of these new products. A discussion of intermediate LDS implementations, i.e. 1K, 2K-byte sectors will be given to explain possible implementation paths to 4K, and present the advantages of following this plan as opposed to a direct 4K-byte migration.

Session Chair: Dr. Gregory Silvus, Broadcom

Dr. Alexander Andreev, Distinguished Engineer, LSI Logic: Low Area and High Throughput 12-bit ECC for Enterprise Drives
Kendall H. Fung, Principal Technologist, Seagate Technology: Advantages of Long Data Blocks
Zining Wu, Engineering Director, Marvell: Reed Solomon Codes for Long Data Sectors
Dr. Hao Zhong, LSI Logic (Agere Systems): Scalable Iterative Decoding for Long Data Block Magnetic Recording

12:30 pm

Lunch

1:30 pm

Session 3: Systems and BIOS Support for Long Data Sectors

Both peripheral hardware and software support of LDS will be presented in this session to facilitate implementation of the new standard in future HDD products. The Microsoft Corp. will discuss the latest operating system, VISTA, to support LDS for ATA interface HDD products; and other interface technologies, including SCSI and LINUX will be asked to discuss the ability of these interfaces to also support LDS. BIOS developers will explain their product strategies for LDS, and electronics designers will present product plans, including unique controller designs, for circuits to support the new standard. Test results for these new designs, if available at this time, will be presented.

Session Chair: Dan Colegrove, Hitachi GST

Paul Chicoine, Principal Engineer, Phoenix Technologies, Ltd: BIOS Support for Greater than 512-Byte Logical and Physical Sectors
Dan Colegrove, Senior Technical Staff Member, Hitachi GST: T13 and Long Data Block Update
Richard Wheeler, Consulting Engineer, Centera Architecture, EMC Corporation: Linux Support for Long Data Blocks
Steve Jenness, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft: Microsoft Windows and Long Data Blocks

3:00 pm

Break

3:30 pm

Session 4: The HDD Storage Users and Long Data Sectors

Principal HDD users, as storage providers, will present the impact on their individual product plans by implementing LDS, including both beneficial and challenging factors. Attendees can expect to hear candid and detailed information from the users of how LDS will impact their storage products and what gains can be anticipated. Since the new LDS standard is being driven by the HDD industry, a very factual and straight forward analysis can be expected based on the opinions of storage users. All platforms will be represented, if possible, from enterprise, desktop and PC products to the latest consumer based HDD users.

Session Chair: Dr. Andrei Vityaev, Fellow, Office of the CTO, LSI Logic

Bret Weber, Fellow, Engenio Storage Group, LSI Logic: 4K Sectors and its Impact on Storage Systems
Steve Livaccari, Senior Engineer, Hard Disk Drive Procurement, IBM Corporation: LDS Implementation Concerns/Challenges
Walter A. Gaspard, Personal Systems Group, Business PC Storage Development, Hewlett-Packard: Effective Support for 512 byte Emulation in 4 K Sector Drives - the Customer's Viewpoint

4:30 pm

Session 5: Wrap Up and Panel Discussion

Session Chair: Steve McCarthy, Integrity Engineering, Inc.

Presenters and participants in this Symposium, representing HDD developers, OS and electronics support, storage users and the general HDD customer, will be asked to participate in a panel discussion to summarize what was presented and heard by the attendees to relay a concise message to the industry on the value LDS. An appraisal on the various implementation paths as which are the most appropriate for the industry could be the result of this panel, and it is intended that attendees will be able to evaluate the effort to introduce a much needed standard and prepare for its future availability.

Dr. Andrei Vityaev, Fellow, LSI Logic

Tom Pratt, Technology Strategist, Office of the CTO, Dell

Frank Widjaja, Storage Device Strategist, Dell

Dan Colegrove, Senior Technical Staff Member, Hitachi GST:

Bret Weber, Fellow, Engenio Storage Group, LSI Logic

Joe Wach, Senior Director, Seagate

Steve Livaccari, Senior Engineer, Hard Disk Drive Procurement, IBM Corporation

Steve Jenness, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft

5:00 pm

Symposium Ends

Conference registration fee includes continental breakfast, lunch, breaks and presentations.

Although online registration has closed for this event, you can still register at the door on the day of the event.

Hotel Information

IDEMA has negotiated a special room rate of $109 per night with the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center. To obtain this special room rate, call the Hotel directly at (303) 776-2000 or (800) 843-8240. You must refer to IDEMA when making the reservation in order to receive the special group rate. This rate is in effect only until March 16^th, so make your reservations quickly.

Directions from Denver International Airport: Take Pena Blvd. out of Denver International Airport E-470 (toll road $3.50). Go RIGHT on E-470 to Interstate 25. Go NORTH (RIGHT) on Interstate 25 to Exit 240 (Longmont Exit Highway 119). Highway 119 becomes Ken Pratt Blvd. Radisson Hotel and Conference Center Longmont-Boulder is on the North (right) side of Ken Pratt Boulevard just past Sunset St.