Seagate is to sell its Advanced Storage Architecture (ASA) research and development group to storage and data protection firm Xiotech.

The acquisition includes certain assets of the ASA business, as well as licences to the associated technology. Financial aspects of the deal were not disclosed.

"We think that the ASA technology will transform the market's perceptions about storage capacity, performance and reliability," said Casey Powell, president and chief executive of Xiotech.

"In time, we expect the ASA group to provide significant additional revenue to Xiotech."

Ellen Lary will serve as vice president and general manager of the company, and former Seagate ASA general manager Steve Sicola will become chief technology officer.

Seagate recently settled a class action lawsuit by offering customers from the past six years a cash refund or free back-up and recovery software.

Competition from Seagate and other manufacturers has also pushed down the price of notebook hard drives, market analyst iSuppli reported today.