WD was the first company to introduce a hard drive, optimized for low power consumption, using GreenPower technology, and is raising the bar for the high performance desktop market with WD Caviar Black. “WD Caviar Black hard drives offer the highest capacity and performance in a desktop class drive available on the market today enabling users to maximize the features and functionality of power computing applications such as multimedia, video and photo editing,” said Don Bennett, WD vice president and general manager of desktop storage. “Selection of a WD Caviar Black drive ensures WD customers receive the best WD has to offer in terms of features, performance and reliability.”

In keeping with WD’s leadership in hard drive performance, WD Caviar Black drives combine 7200 RPM spin speed with the SATA 3 Gb/s interface and 32 MB cache to deliver ultimate performance in a maximum-capacity drive. The WD Caviar Black series of hard drives are designed for use in high-end OEM desktop systems, as well as by users who want to upgrade the speed and capacity of their system. WD Caviar Black hard drives feature the following:

High Performance Electronics Architecture

• Dual processor – Twice the processing power to maximize performance.
• 32MB cache – Bigger, faster cache means faster performance.

Rock Solid Mechanical Architecture

• StableTrac – The motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking, during read and write operations.
• NoTouch ramp load technology – The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.

WD Caviar Blue, Green, Black
WD’s new ‘blue, green, black’ product system enables customers to choose the right drive for them. WD Caviar Blue represents the performance and reliability that WD has been building for over 20 years, the WD Caviar Green employs WD’s GreenPower technology for cool, quiet and eco-friendly operation, while the WD Caviar Black family of hard drives delivers maximum performance for today’s discriminating technology enthusiasts.

Price and Availability
WD Caviar Black 750 GB (model WD7501AALS) and 1 TB (model WD1001FALS) hard drives will be available next week through select distributors and resellers. Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD Caviar Black 750 GB is $199 and the 1 TB is $249 USD. Both drives are covered by a five-year limited warranty. More information about WD Caviar Black 1 TB desktop drives may be found on the company’s Web site at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=488.

Source: WesternDigital

As the only 10K-rpm 2.5-inch enterprise design backed by two prior generations of field-proven reliability, the Savvio 10K.3 drive leads the industry with 300GB of capacity, reliability of 1.6 million hours MTBF, and an advanced SAS 2.0 (6Gb/sec data rate) interface. Seagate’s Savvio 10K.3 drive is also the industry’s first 2.5-inch self-encrypting enterprise drive with government-grade Full Disk Encryption (FDE) data protection.

“The combination of higher capacity and 6Gb SAS on an enterprise-class small form factor disk drive, like the Savvio 10K.3 drive, continues to entice the industry to move from 3.5-inch to 2.5-inch based solutions for use in enterprise storage systems and arrays,” said Dave Reinsel, vice president of Storage Research at IDC. “IDC predicts that shipments of small form factor enterprise drives into enterprise solutions will outnumber 3.5-inch enterprise drive shipments by 2010.”

Seagate’s Savvio 10K.3 drive was built to accommodate a wide range of mainstream enterprise storage applications, where both high capacity and low power consumption are critical requirements within an IT organization.

“Seagate was the pioneer of the 2.5-inch form factor enterprise standard, stemming from work with customers to better understand data center requirements, including the need for greater storage performance density, while continuing to focus on reducing power consumption and cooling costs,” said Sherman Black, senior vice president and general manager, Seagate Enterprise Compute Business. “The Savvio 10K and 15K families have evolved into becoming the most widely-adopted 2.5-inch enterprise drive families throughout the enterprise. Now, with the introduction of the 300GB Savvio 10K.3 drive, more versatile storage systems can be built based upon this sweet-spot capacity.”

Major OEM evaluations of the Savvio 10K.3 drive have begun. General product availability is planned for the second half of calendar year 2008.

Savvio 10K.3 Product Details
Seagate’s Savvio 10K.3 drive offers tremendous improvements over 3.5-inch 300GB 15K-rpm drives including a 70% power savings. Savvio 10K.3 performance is even greater at a system level, delivering a 60% improvement in IOPS density, while also providing at least twice the capacity. These 2.5-inch drive advantages in total translate into greater overall value and reduced total cost of ownership to IT organizations and administrators eager to optimize their data center’s power and performance efficiency.

The Savvio 10K.3 is also the world’s first drive to operate at 6Gb/sec transfer rates, which is part of the new SAS 2.0 feature set. SAS 2.0 was developed to provide additional signal and data integrity features to enable SAS to be ideally-suited for use in high-end network storage applications.

Delivering on Seagate’s commitment to add security features throughout its product portfolio, Savvio 10K.3 will be offered with self-encrypting FDE technology. As the industry’s first 2.5-inch self-encrypting drive, the Savvio 10K.3 provides data-at-rest protection for its entire life cycle.

Seagate Helps Data Centers Focus on Going Green with PowerTrim Technology
Seagate’s next-generation PowerTrim technology is integrated into the Savvio 10K.3 drive and manages drive power consumption during idle activity. With PowerTrim technology, the Savvio 10K.3 addresses the IT dilemma facing energy-constrained data centers by delivering best-in-class power savings.

Source: Seagate

The WD Scorpio Black family of hard drives is destined for use in OEM notebook systems as well as by users who want to upgrade the speed and performance of their current notebook system. As one of the fastest and most efficient hard drives on the market, WD Scorpio Black drives combine desktop-class 7200 RPM spin speed with a SATA 3 Gb/s interface and 16 MB cache to deliver maximum notebook performance.

“In today’s busy and on-the-go lifestyle, notebook systems play an increasingly pivotal role in the home office and are relied upon to efficiently run sophisticated applications,” said Jim Morris, WD’s vice president and general manager of mobile storage. “High performance, high-capacity hard drives are a key ingredient to notebooks as system manufacturers continue to add data-hungry features that allow users to fully benefit from the latest computing technologies.”

With the introduction of its latest-generation WD Scorpio drives, WD further expands the company’s portfolio of 2.5-inch hard drives and continues to offer mobile computing and portable storage customers the same outstanding quality, reliability and performance that have earned the company a leadership position in the desktop and notebook markets.

WD Scorpio Black Exclusive Features

• IntelliSeek – IntelliSeek technology calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration.
• SecurePark – WD’s SecurePark technology parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long term reliability due to less head wear, and improved shock tolerance.
• ShockGuard – WD’s ShockGuard technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks during shipping and handling and in daily operation.
• Free-fall Sensor – As an added layer of protection, if the drive (or the system it’s in) is dropped while in use, WD’s free-fall sensor detects that the drive is falling and, in less than 200 milliseconds, parks the head off the disks to help prevent damage and data loss.
• WhisperDrive – WD’s exclusive WhisperDrive technology combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms that result in one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives on the market.

Source: Western Digital

Weighing in at less than 5 ounces, the My Passport Studio portable drives make it easy to securely carry office files, thousands of songs, videos or photos and back up a Macintosh laptop using Apple Time Machine backup software utility. With an elegant silver metallic finish that perfectly complements other Mac products, these portable drives feature a shock-resistant enclosure to provide protection from the bumps and jars of everyday life on-the-go. Ultra portable, these drives are USB-bus powered which eliminates the need for an external power adapter.

“We designed the My Passport Studio portable drives to work seamlessly with Apple’s Time Machine, making this drive an ideal storage solution for creative pros on-the-go who require high performance storage to back up and carry their massive amounts of digital content,” said Jim Welsh, vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups. “This sleek personal storage device with a faster FireWire interface and Mac-formatting is exactly the storage solution our Mac customers have been clamoring for ever since we introduced the first WD Passport portable USB drive.”

Unique features of the new My Passport Studio portable drives include:

• formatted HFS+, Journaled for Mac compatibility;
• FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interfaces;
• capacity gauge that enables users to know at-a-glance how much space is available;
• works with Apple Time Machine backup feature included in Apple’s Leopard operating system;
• USB powered4;
• industry-leading 5-year limited warranty; and,
• elegant silver metallic finish that perfectly complements other Mac products.

Source: Western Digital – Product Information/Specifications

The company claims that the EcoGreen F1 provides a 15 per cent power saving compared to other low-powered 1TB hard drives, and a 50 percent power reduction against traditional 1TB hard drives.

The device incorporates 5,400rpm rotational speeds, 3Gbps Sata interface, native command queuing and a 32MB buffer memory.

The EcoGreen F1 can be used as an external hard drive or as an internal drive for desktop PCs.

Samsung said that it is also “ideal” for surveillance applications and for audio and video recording where low power and stability requirements are important.

“Since 2003, Samsung’s hard disk drives have complied with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances and Brominated Flame Retardant directive,” said T J Lee, vice president of sales and marketing at Samsung Electronics’ storage division.

“The EcoGreen product line is designed to meet consumer demand for eco-friendly, high-performance devices with an optimised cost of ownership advantage.”

The MHZ2 BK Series is intended to be used in demanding environments with high-frequency access, including entry-level servers or storage systems in enterprise IT equipment, and ATMs or POS systems in industrial applications, where reliability is paramount.

Another feature of the new series is that it has industry-leading power conservation, requiring a low 2.3 W for read and write operations. The series is one of many new products announced as part of Fujitsu’s Green Policy Innovation program, unveiled in December 2007 to promote energy-efficient products and services as a way to help customers lower their ecological footprint.

Whether for use in industrial applications, such as ATMs, POS systems, or for enterprise IT equipment, such as entry-level servers and storage systems, there is a need for HDDs that deliver exceptional reliability and meet a variety of needs, such as for 24-hour continuous operation and high-frequency access, as well as for lower heat generation and reduced energy consumption.

To satisfy the need for a 2.5″ HDD with a capacity of up to 250 GB designed for 24-hour continuous operation in enterprise IT equipment or industrial applications, on May 30, 2008 Fujitsu will begin sales of the MHZ2 BS Series, which has a rotational speed of 5,400 RPM. The MHZ2 BK Series, which runs at 7,200 RPM, is designed for customers who demand HDDs with supreme performance and reliability.

The new series was designed with the environment in mind, requiring a low 2.3 W for read and write operations, while the MHZ2 BS Series requires only 2.1 W, ranking them both among the most power-efficient HDDs in the industry. They are also manufactured in compliance with the EU’s RoHS Directive, which limits the use of hazardous substances.

Both series use the high-throughput 3.0 Gb/s SATA interface and minimize the rotational vibration that poses problems in enterprise IT equipment and industrial applications, helping ensure continuous high performance.

Moreover, capitalizing on the vast experience and reputation for reliability that Fujitsu has accumulated through over 40 years of HDD development, the series delivers the superior quality that customers have come to expect from Fujitsu.

The new Showcase products will provide television and movie fans with the ability to store even more shows, movies and sporting events. With initial capacities up to 1TB, consumers will be able to keep up to 200 hours of additional HD movies or 1,000 hours of additional standard definition television. You’ll never have to choose between your kids’ favorite shows or the big game. Plug-and-play capability, via standard USB 2.0 or eSATA connection, makes setup easy while the stylish design fits seamlessly into entertainment centers and complements the look of existing A/V equipment.

“Today’s consumers are constantly demanding more storage for high-definition video and high-fidelity audio – and they want it as part of their home entertainment system,” said Patrick King, senior vice president of Seagate’s Consumer Solutions Division. “We believe that the Seagate Showcase product line will take its place alongside the receiver, speaker system and television as a must-have component for the entertainment center. We are pleased to be working with Motorola to enable an enjoyable consumer experience.”

“As consumer video consumption continues to increase at exponential rates, Motorola strives to provide flexible and cost-effective solutions” commented Larry Robinson, vice president, Set Top Product Management at Motorola. “By demonstrating interoperability with the Seagate Showcase storage solution we are offering consumers additional compelling storage options for their entertainment content.” The new Showcase family will feature Seagate’s recently announced Pipeline HD Series of hard drives purpose-built for DVRs. Seagate Pipeline HD Series hard drives are the gold standard in high definition performance and capacity with bedroom-quiet acoustics, low power operation and the ability to support up to 12 simultaneous HD streams. The drives are Windows Vista Certified, making them an ideal solution for Home Media Centers.

Seagate is working with Motorola, the leader in digital set-tops with over 73 million shipped, to deliver external storage solutions for DVRs. By connecting a Seagate Showcase product with its included eSATA cable, the capacity of these DVRs can instantly be increased – eliminating the need to delete your favorite movies or shows. The 1TB Seagate Showcase drive can be seen exclusively in the Motorola booth # 1405 during The Cable Show ‘08 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

Source: Seagate