On Wednesday, Seagate
announced a number of new products to offer consumers increased access
to digital home entertainment in an increasingly on-demand world,
including its first hybrid hard drive that incorporates flash memory.
The company also launched several hard drives for the consumer and
enterprise markets, as well as a portable pocket drive and updated
personal server.
Hybrid hard drives incorporating flash memory have been talked about ever since Microsoft introduced the concept at the 2004 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference. Last year, Samsung , the world's largest producer of flash memory, predicted
that the first hybrid drives incorporating flash memory and rotating
storage would come to market in 2006, a promise that has been borne
out.
At the recent WinHEC show, both Seagate and Samsung showed prototypes of the new drive, which they dubbed "ReadyDrive".
The Momentus 5400 PSD is Seagate's first hybrid hard drive,
incorporating 256 Mbytes of flash memory that serves as a fast cache
for booting and saving data. When booting the PC, the operating system
loads data from the flash memory first, speeding bootup times and
negating the need to quickly spin up the drive, a power-consuming
process.
Initially, Samsung forecast
that the first hybrid drives would use 128 Mbytes of flash memory, and
that booting from the drives would reduce power consumption by about 9
percent overall, increasing a notebook's battery life by about an hour.
Seagate's Momentus 5400 PSD drive, however, reduces the power used by
the hard drive by 50 percent, according to the company, and speeds up
the time a system can wake up from hibernation by 20 percent.
Seagate's other introductions were less revolutionary.
"The future business model for content providers is the ability to
transfer content from your home network to all kinds of devices like
cars, iPods, ultra-mobile PCs," said Joni Clark, product marketing
manager for Seagates desktop and notebook division. "The purpose of
storage is to make content easily accessible."
The Mirra Sync & Share Server is a second-generation version of
Seagate's Mirra Personal Server 2.0. The new server is both PC- and
Mac-compatible and allows users to access their digital content via the
Internet at any time. Functions include: data protection, file
synchronization, and sharing between computers. It also comes with free
online user accounts to enable file sharing with friends and family.
The upgraded Mirra server is available with 320 GB or 500 GB of storage capacity and will retail for $499 and $599, respectively. It is slated to begin shipping in June 2006.
Seagate is also offering an 8-GB Pocket Drive that allows consumers to
take tons of digital content with them for on-the-go access. The drive
is capable of storing up to 2,560 digital photos, 133 hours of digital
music, 8 hours of digital video or 4 computer games, according to the company. It is scheduled to ship in July and will retail for $149.
Also launched today, Seagate's 750GB Pushbutton Drive is an external
hard drive that stores three-quarters of a terabyte of data. Size-wise,
the product is comparable to a tape dispenser, Seagate said. The small
form factor shouldn't fool you – Seagate's pushbutton drive is capable
of storing all of the following, combined: a 25-DVD movie collection,
15,000-song music collection, 15,00-photo image library, 50-hours worth
of video, and 50 computer games, with 300GB left over. The device has
already hit shelves and retails for $559.
"Today's external storage is USB or firewire only," Clark said. "With
this product we've put in an eSATA port so consumers can save their
files externally as fast as they can internally."
A new line of ST18 Series hard drives are optimized for portable media
players (PMPs) and GPS systems. The 1.8-inch perpendicular recording
device comes with 60GB capacity and is compatible with the CE-ATA
interface for handheld consumer devices. The ST18 Series is expected to
ship out to retail stores in the first quarter of 2007.
Seagates' DB35 Series 750GB capacity hard drives enable increased HDD
performance for DVRs, based on perpendicular recording technology.
Seagate says it expects the drives to hit retail shelves during the
third quarter of 2006.
The company has also unveiled two new products in its Momentus family
of 2.5-inch notebook PC hard drives, which utilize perpendicular
recording technology and offer up to 160 GB of storage capacity. The
Momentus 5400.2 FDE is an encrypting drive that helps prevent outside
access to data stored on the PC in case it is stolen, lost, or resold.
The Momentus 7200.2 is a 7200-RPM notebook drive with 8MB cache and up
to 160GB memory.
Perpendicular recording technology stands data bits vertically onto
disc media, rather than horizontally, in order to fit more data into
the same amount of space.
Seagate is offering its LD25 Series drives for the gaming and home
entertainment sectors. The drives, available in 20, 30, or 40 GB
capacity, use DynaPlay technology to offer up enhanced media
capabilities like streaming video. The LD25 Series is slated to ship in
the first quarter of 2007.
"Consumers may wonder why they need all of these different storage
devices," Clark said. "The vision we're trying to influence is the
ability to control and manage digital content across multiple devices
from one main device. We're trying to influence the market and other
industries with that vision."
Lastly, Seagate has launched two new enterprise drives, both of which will begin shipping in the first quarter of 2007.
The Barracuda ES with SATA capacity up to 750 GB incorporates
multi-drive features for enterprise users. It also includes a "Workload
Manager" feature to protect hard drives from high temperatures. The
Barracuda is available in 250, 400 or 500 GB storage capacity.
The Savvio 10K.2 is a 2.5-inch enterprise-class disk drive with 146 GB
capacity and 1.6 million hour MTBF reliability. Seagates' Savvio drive
is available in two different interfaces: 3-Gbit Serial Attached SCSI
(SAS) and 4Gb Fibre Channel.
Editor's Note:This story was updated at 10:00 AM EDT on May 7 with comments from Seagate's Clark.
From PC Magazine:
Seagate Launches First Hybrid Hard Drive
Notebook Drive Incorporating Flash Memory Means More Battery; Many Other Products Announced
06.07.06
by Bary Alyssa Johnson
On Wednesday, Seagate
announced a number of new products to offer consumers increased access
to digital home entertainment in an increasingly on-demand world,
including its first hybrid hard drive that incorporates flash memory.
The company also launched several hard drives for the consumer and
enterprise markets, as well as a portable pocket drive and updated
personal server.
Hybrid hard drives incorporating flash memory have been talked about ever since Microsoft introduced the concept at the 2004 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference. Last year, Samsung , the world's largest producer of flash memory, predicted
that the first hybrid drives incorporating flash memory and rotating
storage would come to market in 2006, a promise that has been borne
out.
At the recent WinHEC show, both Seagate and Samsung showed prototypes of the new drive, which they dubbed "ReadyDrive".
The Momentus 5400 PSD is Seagate's first hybrid hard drive,
incorporating 256 Mbytes of flash memory that serves as a fast cache
for booting and saving data. When booting the PC, the operating system
loads data from the flash memory first, speeding bootup times and
negating the need to quickly spin up the drive, a power-consuming
process.
Initially, Samsung forecast
that the first hybrid drives would use 128 Mbytes of flash memory, and
that booting from the drives would reduce power consumption by about 9
percent overall, increasing a notebook's battery life by about an hour.
Seagate's Momentus 5400 PSD drive, however, reduces the power used by
the hard drive by 50 percent, according to the company, and speeds up
the time a system can wake up from hibernation by 20 percent.
Seagate's other introductions were less revolutionary.
"The future business model for content providers is the ability to
transfer content from your home network to all kinds of devices like
cars, iPods, ultra-mobile PCs," said Joni Clark, product marketing
manager for Seagates desktop and notebook division. "The purpose of
storage is to make content easily accessible."
The Mirra Sync & Share Server is a second-generation version ofcapacity
and will retail for $499 and $599, respectively. It is slated to begin shipping in June 2006.
Seagate's Mirra Personal Server 2.0. The new server is both PC- and
Mac-compatible and allows users to access their digital content via the
Internet at any time. Functions include: data protection, file
synchronization, and sharing between computers. It also comes with free
online user accounts to enable file sharing with friends and family.
The upgraded Mirra server is available with 320 GB or 500 GB of storage
Seagate is also offering an 8-GB Pocket Drive that allows consumers togames
, according to the company. It is scheduled to ship in July and will retail for $149.
take tons of digital content with them for on-the-go access. The drive
is capable of storing up to 2,560 digital photos, 133 hours of digital
music, 8 hours of digital video or 4 computer
Also launched today, Seagate's 750GB Pushbutton Drive is an external
hard drive that stores three-quarters of a terabyte of data. Size-wise,
the product is comparable to a tape dispenser, Seagate said. The small
form factor shouldn't fool you – Seagate's pushbutton drive is capable
of storing all of the following, combined: a 25-DVD movie collection,
15,000-song music collection, 15,00-photo image library, 50-hours worth
of video, and 50 computer games, with 300GB left over. The device has
already hit shelves and retails for $559.
"Today's external storage is USB or firewire only," Clark said. "With
this product we've put in an eSATA port so consumers can save their
files externally as fast as they can internally."
A new line of ST18 Series hard drives are optimized for portable media
players (PMPs) and GPS systems. The 1.8-inch perpendicular recording
device comes with 60GB capacity and is compatible with the CE-ATA
interface for handheld consumer devices. The ST18 Series is expected to
ship out to retail stores in the first quarter of 2007.
Seagates' DB35 Series 750GB capacity hard drives enable increased HDD
performance for DVRs, based on perpendicular recording technology.
Seagate says it expects the drives to hit retail shelves during the
third quarter of 2006.
The company has also unveiled two new products in its Momentus family
of 2.5-inch notebook PC hard drives, which utilize perpendicular
recording technology and offer up to 160 GB of storage capacity. The
Momentus 5400.2 FDE is an encrypting drive that helps prevent outside
access to data stored on the PC in case it is stolen, lost, or resold.
The Momentus 7200.2 is a 7200-RPM notebook drive with 8MB cache and up
to 160GB memory.
Perpendicular recording technology stands data bits vertically onto
disc media, rather than horizontally, in order to fit more data into
the same amount of space.
Seagate is offering its LD25 Series drives for the gaming and home
entertainment sectors. The drives, available in 20, 30, or 40 GB
capacity, use DynaPlay technology to offer up enhanced media
capabilities like streaming video. The LD25 Series is slated to ship in
the first quarter of 2007.
"Consumers may wonder why they need all of these different storage
devices," Clark said. "The vision we're trying to influence is the
ability to control and manage digital content across multiple devices
from one main device. We're trying to influence the market and other
industries with that vision."
Lastly, Seagate has launched two new enterprise drives, both of which will begin shipping in the first quarter of 2007.
The Barracuda ES with SATA capacity up to 750 GB incorporates
multi-drive features for enterprise users. It also includes a "Workload
Manager" feature to protect hard drives from high temperatures. The
Barracuda is available in 250, 400 or 500 GB storage capacity.
The Savvio 10K.2 is a 2.5-inch enterprise-class disk drive with 146 GBChannel
.
capacity and 1.6 million hour MTBF reliability. Seagates' Savvio drive
is available in two different interfaces: 3-Gbit Serial Attached SCSI
(SAS) and 4Gb Fibre
Editor's Note:This story was updated at 10:00 AM EDT on May 7 with comments from Seagate's Clark.