Seagate wants more drive into CE

Seagate Technology announced the Seagate Storage Management Module (SMM), a software solution containing drivers, utilities and tools to provide hard drive support for a wide variety of chipsets. Seagate SMM will clear technical obstacles for integrating hard drives into popular consumer electronic devices such as mobile phones, personal media players, IPTV set-top boxes, automotive devices and others.

The software is designed to optimize hard drive-powered devices for efficient power consumption, better media recording and playback performance, and instant-on response. Seagate is currently collaborating with leading chipset manufacturers including STMicroelectronics, Marvell, and others.

The amount of content stored on consumer electronic devices is increasing exponentially, yet native support for hard drives does not necessarily exist on the chipsets that power these devices. SMM is a building block in opening new applications that move, store, manage, share, and protect digital content that can be enjoyed wherever, whenever, and however consumers want.

The software provides express hard drive integration for applications that would bring the benefits of mass storage to consumers, improving time-to-market, saving money and allowing consumer electronic manufacturers to apply resources to what they do best – creating the latest and greatest devices for which consumers clamor.

“As the leader in the hard drive market, Seagate has dedicated itself to enabling the On-Demand World, where consumers can have their content when, where, and how they want it,” said David Mosley, Seagate vice president of Product Development. “The Storage Management Module software will help manufacturers everywhere create hard drive-based products that offer longer battery life, instantaneous power-on, and better recording and playback performance.”