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Seagate unveils 800GB pro SSD, new Constellation and Savvios

adina — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:23:55 +0000

On March 15, 2011, Seagate unveiled four pro drives targeted at both serious users and enterprise users, including an almost record-setting SSD. The new Pulsar 2 is believed to be the first SSD to use multi-level cell (MLC) in business and to use the denser storage to boost capacity, even without reducing the lifespan. The Pulsar 2 can hold almost 800GB in its 2.5-inch form and it can take as many as 15 petabytes of writes (this could mean more than five years if the drive were completely rewritten 10 times a day).

Pulsar 2’s companion, the Pulsar XT.2 caps off at about 400GB. However, it is intended for areas where speed is more important than capacity, thanks to the faster single-level cell (SLC) storage. The XT.2 is able to reach sustained, sequential write speeds of 300MB per second and read speeds of up to 360MB per second. Both the Pulsar 2 and the Pulsar XT.2 are able to work on up to a 6Gbps SATA interface.

The Savvio 15K.3 and 10K.5, two 2,50-inch rotating hard drives, are intended for those who need traditional storage, but still a certain level of speed. At 15,000RPM, the Savvio 15K.3 can keep transferring data at up to 202MB per second, with capacities capable of 300GB. The 10,000RPM 10K.5 is a balance with 168MB per second, but to the extent of 900GB of space.

Constellation ES.2 still serves full-size 3.5-inch drives. This brings 3TB to the Seagate high-end disks and spins at the standard 7,200RPM speed of most desktop drives, although with steps to improve reliability and tools to facilitate data recovery.

All of the Constellations, Savvios and Pulsars start shipping to computer makers on March 15, 2011; they could be available as stand-alone drives sometime this spring.

Seagate unveils Momentus XT hybrid HD and SSD

adina — Sat, 29 May 2010 14:47:27 +0000

Seagate has revealed the Momentus XT. The drive is meant to be the best for notebooks. It includes a traditional 2.5-inch at 7,200RPM hard drive with a 4GB solid-state drive, SLC-based, and 32MB of memory, DDR3 type, as a cache. Special firmware present on the drive uses the solid-state drive to optimize performance. It would boost as fast as a genuine SSD. It also would load about 80 percent faster than would a regular 7,200RPM drive.

The SATA II drive is OS-independent and is addressed to performance users that include high-end notebooks and compact desktops as well as other devices that are able to use the extra bandwidth, such as, for example, USB 3.0 or eSATA. There are three versions of the Momentus XT available, the 250GB, 320GB and 500GB models. Starting prices are much lower than for traditional SSDs, about $113.

Netflix and YouTube available on Seagate media players

adina — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 17:46:53 +0000

Netflix’ streaming movie service was announced to be added to Seagate’s FreeAgent Theater+ HD media players. The devices will also get access low-cost or free services from YouTube, Mediafly and vTuner. Those users who own an existing Seagate media player will be able to download a free firmware update that brings new functionality. At the same time, new media players will ship with the update preloaded.

The FreeAgent Theater+ HD also has the function of an UPnP/DLNA media streaming device and is priced at about $100. The price does not include a FreeAgent hard drive, which can be docked inside it.

Seagate announced last week the preload of Paramount movies onto the FreeAgent drives. This announcement suggested that the hard drive maker would focus in the future on providing more multimedia content for all its products.

Seagate officially confirms the launch of the Momentus Thin

adina — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:55:11 +0000

Seagate has confirmed the launch of the thinnest ever hard drive, the Momentus Thin. The hard drive is just 7mm thick, which means it is much thinner than the 9.5mm and 12mm thick common rotating storage. Using such thinner hard drives allows notebook designers to imagine thinner systems without having to use more solid-state drives that are more expensive or 1.8-inch spinning disks with lower capacity.

The 2.5-inch disks are running at typical speeds for notebooks and use a SATA II interface and 8MB of cache memory. The spinning speed is 5,400 rpm. Seagate has only sacrificed the capacity of the hard disks, by reducing it to 160GB and 250GB for the tow versions available, as the reduced size does not allow higher capacities.

Seagate is prioritizing its offering of the hard drives to OEMs and plans to ship them next year in January rather than selling them to private customers. The systems using these drives should be less expensive and thinner than currently available ones. The price for the 250GB versions would be $50.

Seagate’s 7mm hard drive limited to 250GB?

adina — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:18:28 +0000

Leaked details, if proven accurate, seem to indicate that the Seagate’s promised 7mm hard drive could have a relatively limited capacity. The line would be called the Momentus Thin and would have capacities up to 250GB, offering a 160GB model for those who are concerned about the price. The drives would in any case spin at 5,400rpm, which is typical for notebook 9.5mm or 12mm tall drives.

Both of the drives, that are SATA II-capable, will be unveiled at CES in early January next year. There is still no information available on whether or not the drives will ship immediately or maybe later. Seagate has officially claimed that the 7mm hard drives are meant for use in extra-thin notebooks that previously had no alternative but to use either lower capacity drives or solid-state drives which are much more expensive.

First SSD and 7mm high HDD from Seagate

adina — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:30:31 +0000

Seagate has confirmed a change in its policy, after a historical fight against flash storage, by announcing the launch of the Pulsar solid-state drive. It is a 2.5-inch SATA drive, useful for notebooks but mainly targeted to servers, as well as other computers, where not only speed, but also longevity matters. The solid-state drive uses a single-level cell flash memory and has an 0.44 percent of failure rate per year while reaching peak read speeds of 240Mbps as well as peak write speeds of 200 Mbps. The drive is only 7mm (0.28 inches) high and is produced in capacities ranging up to 200GB. The Pulsar is already shipping for pre-made systems since September, but information about when stand-alone drives would be available is still missing.

The company also unveiled its plans of releasing the first-ever rotating hard drive having the same 7mm height, which should be presented at CES next month. This disk should be significantly thinner than actual 9.5mm rotating hard drives and this means thinner notebooks could be produced without having to recur to solid-state drives or 1.8-inch spinning disks. What Seagate hopes is that this drive will lead to ultraportables with a lower price by using less dense storage. Other details, including capacities, will be available only at the CES event.

Seagate Ships the 2TB Barracuda XT

caitas — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:52:41 +0000

The 2TB Barracuda XT represents Seagate`s new launched product which was introduced today. This new drive extends the Barracuda product line, being the first gadget in its industry that utilizes a 6 gigabytes SATA interface. The innovative driver comprises a doubled theoretical bandwidth compared with the traditional SATA II drives.

Moreover, it assures the disks` speed of almost 600 megabytes per second during burst transfers. 2TB Barracuda XT driver enables a transfer ratio of 140 megabytes per second being complemented by the Seagate’s first onboard cache which comprises 64 megabytes for the primary drive. The 2TB Barracuda XT model will incorporate SATA II and the traditional 1.5 gigabytes per second SATA systems. This is said to enable the hard drive to assure the speeds it claimed for those variants.

Seagate Company is expected to distribute the 2TB Barracuda XT hard drive by the end of this week at the acquisition price of $299.