TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Western Digital Posts Record Results: The company is riding a wave of demand for its hard disk drives for personal computers. For its second fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, Irvine-based Western Digital Corp. posted a profit of $42.6 million, or 85 cents a share. That was up dramatically from earnings of $12.5 million, or 32 cents a share, for the same period a year earlier. Three-month revenue was $552 million, up from $371 million. Chuck Haggerty, the technology company’s chairman and chief executive, said several big orders from Gateway 2000, Dell Computer Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. boosted demand during the quarter and raised revenue above projections. Western Digital also announced the creation of a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based division for multimedia products. The new unit will focus on manufacturing microprocessor chips and circuit boards to run audio, motion video and graphics programs.