Agere Systems announced its SC1200 system-on-a-chip in September 2005 to help miniature hard drives store more data in portable consumer devices. The chip supported perpendicular recording and several host-interface options; Agere claimed its design could enable 12 GB in a 1.0-inch drive. Those capacity figures were company claims at the time, not independently verified results or current specifications.
What was Agere’s SC1200?
The SC1200 was a highly integrated system-on-a-chip for small-form-factor hard disk drives used in products such as digital music players, mobile phones and digital cameras. EE Times described it as an addition to Agere’s TrueStore CE chip-set family in its September 19, 2005 announcement coverage.
Agere’s goal was to combine drive functions in one chip and support higher storage density in miniature disks. The intended benefit was more room for music, video and other large files in portable products—not a consumer upgrade chip sold for installation in a device.
How perpendicular recording related to capacity
Perpendicular recording stores data with the magnetic orientation directed vertically relative to the disk surface, rather than horizontally. In the announcement’s account, this recording approach offered a way to increase areal density in very small hard drives, giving manufacturers a path to larger capacities without increasing the drive’s physical size.
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Agere said the SC1200 offered a 0.5 dB performance advantage over competing system-on-chips and that this translated to nearly 10% more capacity. The 0.5 dB comparison and capacity implication were Agere’s claims as reported by EE Times; the article does not provide independent test results or enough detail to treat them as a general benchmark.
What the announcement said the chip could support
| Feature | What was reported |
|---|---|
| Recording technology | Support for perpendicular recording, according to Agere’s 2005 announcement. |
| Host-bus options | CE-ATA and multimedia card (MMC) host-bus interface options. |
| Drive capacity target | Agere said the chip could enable 12 GB in a 1.0-inch hard drive, which it described as three times mainstream flash capacity at that time. This was a historical company claim, not a verified current specification. |
| Integration and power | Agere presented the SoC as a way to combine drive functions and reduce battery drain in portable products; independent power measurements were not reported. |
Joe O’Hare, then vice president of Agere’s Storage Division, described consumer products as a major opportunity for disk drives and said the company’s standard-product SoC offered features aimed at increasing capacity and reducing battery drain. That statement expressed Agere’s outlook, not an independent assessment of the chip’s real-world results.
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What the market forecast did—and did not—show
EE Times reported an IDC forecast that combined shipments of 1.8-, 1.0- and 0.85-inch drives would rise from 17 million in 2004 to 149 million in 2009, a projected compound annual growth rate of 53.7%. These figures were a forecast reported in 2005, not confirmed shipment results. They help explain why manufacturers were pursuing miniature-drive capacity, but do not establish how the SC1200 or the market ultimately performed.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Sampling and present-day availability
Agere expected sample quantities to begin shipping in early 2006, with sample pricing from US$10. That was the announcement’s historical sampling expectation and price, not a retail price or evidence of current production. The cited EE Times coverage does not establish whether the SC1200 entered sustained production or whether it is available today.
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