🚀 go-pugleaf

On Fri, 22 Mar 2002 15:37:56 GMT, "Anu" <scharmialam@attbi.com> wrote:
>Hi guys,
>
>I'm a newbie so please be patient.
>
>I am trying to determine the cost drivers of ide hard drives. What are the
>different components and their cost contribution? The end game is to
>determine the bottom cost of a drive if
>performance and density constraints can be relaxed (i.e. the lowest cost to
>manufacture a "small, slow drive".)
>
>Cost drivers identified so far are:
>    1. # of platters
>    2. # of heads
>    3. Embedded servo vs. dedicated servo
>    4. Spindle motor speed
>    5. Onboard logic (don't know if this is variable cost i.e. can use
>cheaper DSPs/controllers)
>
>Don't know the percentage contribution, nor absolute numbers for these as
>relates to HDD cost. Hard numbers would be greatly appreciated.
>
>I'm sure this has been discussed previously so I apologise in advance for
>wasting b/w.
>
>Thanks,
>Anupam

I would guess that the onboard logic could be treated as a fixed cost.
If you look at current drives, and drives that are about five years
old, the circuit boards look pretty much the same.  The IDE specs have
been pretty fixed for a good long time, and I think they've pretty
much got them down to a minimum set of PLA / FPGA /etc.

I would guess, also that the platters are in the $1-$10 range each,
the heads are in the $1-10 range each, and that doubling the spindle
speed will double the cost of the motor... though not what you can
charge for it.

Hope this helps,
Anthony J. Albert