Walker Blount is responsible for the Storage Systems Service, which includes analysis of flash storage systems (SSDs, EFD, and Flash cards), small form factor hard disk drives, and alternative storage technologies such as micro mechanical probe storage. Mr. Blount authors the SSD report that has been published by WFR since 2002.

Mr. Blount comes to Web-Feet Research after an extensive career at IBM. Hired as a design engineer in test engineering, he held a number of key engineering positions within IBM, including several years in key management positions. These included project management of manufacturing and test processes; managing 20 employees to support the manufacturing and testing of IBM’s storage subsystems. Support included establishing new processes, managing manufacturing and test costs through process improvements and selecting component and sub- assembly vendors.

From1993- 2004, Mr. Blount was the principal HDD industry analyst within IBM and more recently Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. In this position he has identified market opportunities and company strategies for hard disk drives, emphasizing the consumer electronics markets and the (1”) Microdrive HDD.

Mr. Blount has published a number of internal reports and analytical assessments on the HDD industry and industry product offerings within Hitachi including several external whitepapers; “Fluid Dynamic Bearing Motors in Hard Disk Drives, “Voice Coil Motor Dampening” and “Why 7200 RPM Mobile Drives”.

Mr. Blount earned his B.S degree in Electrical Engineering from California State University at Los Angeles, and his M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University.

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