New products from Seagate

Evgenie Rudometov

http://www.rudometov.com

Company Seagate which is the world's largest manufacturer of hard disk drives has declared release of 12 new products

At the press conference led in St.-Petersburg experts of Seagate corporation announced release of the big number of new models of disk drives on hard disks, together with of some the products created on their basis.

Photo 1. Alester Stjuart, director Seagate for sales in the countries Central and the Eastern Europe (Alastair Stewart, SalesDirector)

Photo 3. Hans-Diter Blazer, chief executive Seagate on distribution in the countries of Europe, the Near East and Africa (Hans-Dieter Blaser, Executive Director Distribution Sales Europe, Middle East and Africa)

The declared bar includes the hard disk drives which informational sizes are in a band from microfloppy model in size of 500 Gbytes (0,5 Tbyte) to one-inch model 5 of Gbytes. The bar covers all possible solutions applied in branch. Using proprietary processes, company Seagate own forces creates both magnetic heads, and disk slices. On the basis of these units of firm of Seagate corporation release a wide spectrum of disk drives on hard disks, size, speed and which dependability increase from year to year. It allows to create disk subsystems and to increase their information capacity as a part of computers of different types: from notebooks to workstations and servers.

Estimating parametres of hard disk drives and the arrangements created on their basis, it is necessary to mark, that the quantity of the made information promptly increases from year to year. Now its size is characterised by considerable numbers. Here only a few examples taken from presentation Seagate:

• On each person in a year it is made about 800 Mb of data;
• Each person during the life makes to 100 Gbytes of the information;
• Within a year the television and broadcasting works out to 75 petabajt data;
• E-mail is a source 400 petabajt data;
• In 2002 5 exabytes of data have been written to magnetic media.

As a result of growth of sizes of the made information the role of hard disk drives as resources of storage of programs and data increases. It leads to increase in number of released arrangements of this type. So, for example, in 2004 it is planned to release an order of 300 million hard disk drives, and in 2007 — already more than 400 million Considering, that increases not only the quantity of realised disk drives, but their size (twice each 9-12 months), the resulted numbers testify to prompt growth of size of the saved information.

Fast perfection of the firm processing techniques underlying a construction of hard disk drives, provide further improvement of parametres of these arrangements. According to the forecast of development of the branches linked to release of given type of drives, the next two years there are a reality the disk drives possessing following characteristics:

• For desktop computers size of the hard disk drive used for a wireless data recording, linked to a photo, music, high-definition television, video, games etc ., it will be calculated in terabytes at the price of the drive less than $200,
• For notebooks — 200 Gbytes for writing of programs and data, including various multimedia the information, at the price of the drive less than $150,
• For a handheld computer, smart phones and mobile phones — 10 Gbytes for writing of programs and multimedia data at the price of the miniature drive which can use in the architecture of transportable arrangements of the specified types, and also as a part of the special external additional unit, less than $100.

Usage in various home arrangements, and not just in computers, a wide spectrum of hard disk drives will give possibility to users to fix and handle great volumes of audio and video data. It, by the way, will allow already in following generation of arrangements writing the multimedia information in many cases to refuse rather slow, difficult and accident-sensitive tape mechanisms. The disk drive size in 1 Tbyte which becomes the standard of a disk subsystem of desktop computers in 2006, provides possibility of writing of video data during several hundreds hours (till five hundred o'clock) with quality DVD.

For implementation of possibilities of writing of the various information company Seagate offers wide gamma of hard disk drives. Possible usages of these disk drives are resulted on a photo 3.

Photo 3. Usages of hard disk drives of company Seagate

On the presented photo (a photo 3) current products Seagate are designated by red colour, and new — dark blue.

Company Seagate offers the widest in branch choice of disk drives for market of consumer electronics, including variety of already existing and future arrangements for digital entertainments — from house cinemas to personal pocket computers (handheld computer), capable to handle the multimedia information.

New drives of series Seagate ST1 Series in size of 2,5 Gbytes and 5 Gbytes with a form factor of 1 inch allow to store the whole record libraries of high-quality music for playback on pocket players. New firm processing technique RunOn eliminates clicks and the skips called by jolting and vibrations during walking. Disk drives of series Seagate ST1 contain till 90 o'clock the music encoded with bitrejtom of 128 Mb per second. The turn-on time of this arrangement does not exceed 2,5 with, and its construction on assurances of implementators changes representation about durability of one-inch disk drives. Disk drives of series ST1 are compatible to all existing standards of the portable arrangements using drives. It is possible to tell, that company Seagate, having studied the market of digital players, actually has anew invented the one-inch hard disks, called to make a competition and even to exceed solid-state memory on productivity, dependability, energopotrebleniju and the price.

Photo 4. An one-inch hard disk drive in size of 5 Gbytes, laying on the standard card

One of applications of the given miniature units is the pocket model of external disk drive Seagate USB2 Pocket Hard Drive in size of 5 Gbytes with interface USB. Thanks to the tiny sizes and its strong tank without fears it is possible to carry in a pocket.

One more variant are new one-inch drives Seagate Compact Flash Photo Hard Drive with interface Compact Flash. Now arrangements of two variants are released: in size of 2,5 Gbytes and 5 Gbytes. These arrangements are intended basically for digital cameras. As a result of usage of the given disk drives simple users and professional photographers receive capacious storage devices under much lower price, in comparison with solid-state memory. Drives Seagate Compact Flash Photo Hard Drive are hooked up to standard Compact Flash plug which is available in many modern digital videos and cameras, and also a handheld computer.

Comparing to the resulted examples it is impossible to name the new drive of series DB35 in size of 400 Gbytes miniature. It is intended for other sector of the market. The drive on hard magnetic disks of series DB35 is now the most capacious in branch the disk drive for digital videounits. High-quality digital videorecorders concern such videounits (high definition DVR), house multimedia centres and the arrangements oriented to allocation of new television services, for example, such as video on demand. Drives of series DB35 allow to write to 10 streams of television data, and the new set of unique utilities for digital videorecorders allows manufacturers to customise precisely the disk drive on optimal productivity.

It is necessary to mark, that drives Seagate DB35 also can use as customised peripherals of an information storage for digital videorecorders. It allows manufacturers of digital videorecorders and providers of a cable and satellite television to offer televiewers more than disk memory for writing of telecasts.

Estimating perspectivity of hard disk drives for video information writing, it is not necessary to forget and about the market of audioarrangements. It is necessary to add, that market MP3 of players is one of the most fast-growing segments of the market of disk drives for consumer electronics. Under forecasts of research organisation IDC, the market of drives for digital audio and multimedia players by 2007 will make about 15 million arrangements. It is linked by that users wish to store great volumes of music and an excellence photo. However for this purpose to them are necessary strong vysokoemkie storage devices under the reasonable price. And the products similar to drives Seagate ST1 and Seagate Compact Flash Photo Hard Drive, urged to satisfy these requirements.

Company Seagate delivers the given drives to the majority of world manufacturers of digital videos and audiotape recorders, and also players, including such brands, as Toshiba, Thomson, Pioneer, Pace, Nokia, Motorola and Echostar. By development of drives Seagate high dependability and stream productivity tries to consider requirements of manufacturers of home electronics which interest, first of all, noiselessness of operation. The special centres rendering services in development of home electronics (CE Design Service Centers) are with that end in view created. Thanks to the special program in the field of production (Advanced Manufacturing Initiative) customers Seagate (manufacturers of videounits) receive modern product lines. It allows to introduce fast corrective amendments in production taking into account appearance of new requirements, and also during the periods of sudden growth of demand for accessories for home electronics.

For the market of notebooks company Seagate has declared release of the new models representing the popular set of drives for notebooks Momentus. Model Momentus 5400.2 possesses size to 100 Gbytes thanks to presence of two slices with a bit density of 50 Gbytes on a slice. Model 7200.1 with speed of rotation of a spindle of 7200 rpm on assurances of experts Seagate possesses maximum productivity in branch among drives for notebooks and other transportable systems.

Thanks to speed of rotation of a spindle of 5400 rpm productivity of the disk drive almost on 50 % above, than for disk drives with speed of rotation of 4200 rpm. Thus the new model consumes as much energies, how many and disk drives with speed of rotation of 4200 rpm. Model Seagate Momentus 5400.2 is capable to soak blows in a non-working state to 800 G. High shock resistance and dependability of a construction allow to use it in notebooks and other systems intended for usage in transportable conditions.

Disk drive Seagate Momentus 7200.1 with a form factor of 2,5 inches and speed of rotation of a spindle of 7200 rpm is intended for high-powered transportable personal computers. However model Seagate Momentus 7200.1 can be used also and in transportable game systems, the PC of a small form factor and in a number of other arrangements, including blade servers, MP3 players, printers and kopiry. Model Momentus 7200.1 is developed under interfaces Serial ATA and Ultra ATA. As this model, as well as other disk drives of Momentus set, possesses high shock resistance, it can use not only in notebooks and other transportable systems, but also in the industrial systems which maintenance is quite often carried out in the conditions of close to the extremal.

Thanks to firm protection system G-Force Protection new models of 2,5-inch drives Seagate are capable to soak blows, and also vibration which often takes place in multidisk systems (for example, in servers of initial level). And the firm processing technique of floating magnetic head QuietStep reduces to a minimum noise at head positioning.

Drives Momentus have won popularity among world manufacturers of notebooks and now use in notebooks almost all known brands, including Acer, Alienware, Dell, HP, Fujitsu Siemens, Legend, NEC Computers International and many other things. Besides, disk drives Momentus can use with success in a so-called segment whitebook. It is rather new market which has appeared thanks to independent system integrators in the distribution channel. In effect, whitebook represents a type notebook barebone. In comparison with a ready notebook, it does not have not enough memory modules, the drive and the processor. Addition in such system of memory, the hard disk and the processor occupies from system integrators about ten minutes. Similar production allows system integrators to enter the market of notebooks with own solutions. Disk drives possess high efficiency, low energopotrebleniem, dependability and noiselessness that has provided their popularity among indirect manufacturers of the market of computers and home electronics.

For the market of portable solutions Company Seagate has presented external drive Seagate Portable External Hard Drive. New portable external drive Seagate on the basis of a 2,5-inch disk at size of 100 Gbytes takes not enough place on a desktop. It is the most desksize desktop external hard disk drive from the known manufacturer, presented today in the market. Representing portable solution with support USB, disk drive Seagate Portable External Hard Drive differs low energopotrebleniem, high shock resistance and the compact sizes. It well approaches for transportable users who wish to have always at itself the figures.

Expanding the bar of disk drives for the market of desktop computers, Company Seagate has presented new models of internal and external disk drives of bar Barracuda. Drives Barracuda 7200.8 represent a new generation of the set of disk drives most popular in the world for the PC.

New drive Barracuda 7200.8 differs a maximum bit density in branch, providing size to 400 Gbytes of all on three slices. Supplied with the new cache memory which size is increased to 16 Mb, disk drive Barracuda 7200.8 is delivered with interface Ultra ATA or with the high-grade implementation of interface Serial ATA first in branch. The given implementation provides complete support of processing technique of routeing of native command queuing (NCQ commands. Thus disk drive Barracuda 7200.8 remains the most silent drive in the market. Speed of rotation of a spindle of this arrangement makes 7200 rpm, an average search time — 8,0 msec. Drive Barracuda 7200.8 provides high speeds of data transfer and can be applied in modern game systems, and also in efficient workstations, house multimedia centres on the basis of the PC, SATA servers of initial level and economic okololinejnyh data storage systems. Thanking patentovannym to engines SoftSonic with hydrodynamic bearings the hard disk noise level is lowest. For example, in wait state the noise level in case of model in size of 120 Gbytes is not exceeded by 2,0 Bell.

New external drive Seagate External Hard Drive differs effective cooling and durability. Besides, allows to fulfil a backup one pressing of the button. It is supplied by the convenient switch/power switch providing saving of energy and safety of data. Thanks to the unique construction external hard disks Seagate can be installed vertically or horizontally, that allows to save a place on a desktop. It is necessary to add, that users can hook up and disable external hard disks without computer turn off.

In the course of the announcement of release of new products the corporate market is not disregarded also. New drives Seagate include high-powered hard disks with speed of rotation of a spindle of 15 000 rpm, called to increase speed of performance of an input/output operation and dependability. New drives and with speed of rotation of 10 000 rpm possessing in the raised size and intended for servers of initial level, and also workstations are released  . Disk drives for okololinejnyh systems an information storage possessing in size of 500 Gbytes, under the price below usual drives of a corporate class are besides, presented .

Permanently varying requirements to hard disks of a corporate class increase requirement for a wide spectrum of solutions for the data storage, corresponding to standards of the corporate equipment. At a choice of hard disks many factors are considered, starting from the raised size and simplicity of a data control, ending a high speed of performance of an input/output operation, and recently — and small dimensions.

Drives of new series Seagate NL35 – the disk drives first in branch for jarusnyh (tiered) okololinejnyh the data storage systems, capable to contain a half-terabyte of data. The new class of systems of data storage urged to fill a blank between primary systems of data storage and systems arhivirovanija. A basis for these okololinejnyh data storage systems are vysokoemkie and highly reliable drives with a good relation the price/size and support of interfaces Fibre Channel or Serial ATA. Seagate NL35 set Drives have been developed specially for okololinejnyh data storage systems.

To okololinejnym to data storage systems systems of a backup and restoring of the information from a disk on a disk, virtual tape systems of a backup and restoring, associative storage devices for handle of document circulation and systems of data storage of the lower circle concern. In comparison with traditional tape systems of a backup, Seagate NL35 set drives provide faster, reliable both economic backup and a data recovery.

Drives Seagate Cheetah 15K.4 possess the best relation the price/productivity as they generalise experience at once four generations of hard disks Cheetah with speed of rotation of a spindle of 15 000 rpm. Popularity of this model in the market of drives of a corporate class for high-powered data-processing centres is provided is unprecedented high efficiency and dependability.

In comparison with 3,5-inch drives with speed of rotation of 10 000 rpm, hard disks Cheetah 15K.4 allow to fulfil on 30 % of more input/output operation for a second, at response time abbreviation on 20 %. As a result, new arrangements provide the best productivity at smaller quantity of disk drives, and it in turn leads to lowering of a total cost of possession.

In the set of disk drives Cheetah 15K.4 there are models in size of 36 Gbytes, 73 Gbytes and 147 Gbytes. All of them are equipped by interface Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). Time between failures makes 1,4 million hours. Testing was led under the circuit 24х7 (24 hours within 7 days), that corresponds to the real loads which are taking place at firms.

Company Seagate has presented also new hard disk drive Cheetah 10K.7. This arrangement possesses maximum size among 3,5-inch drives of company Seagate of a corporate class with speed of rotation of a spindle of 10 000 rpm. It is necessary to mark, that drives Cheetah 10K.7 are intended for the applications which are not showing too strict requirements in those, as to compactness of allocation of arrangements, but demanding maximum dependability.

Disk drives Seagate Cheetah 10K.7 — the new measurement standard vysokoemkih the disk drives of a corporate class providing size to 300 Gbytes in nizkoprofilnom 3,5-inch tank. Being model of the seventh generation of the popular bar of disk drives Cheetah with speed of rotation of 10 000 rpm, the new disk drive possesses high size and dependability. This development is intended for corporate applications of low level.

It is necessary to mark, that many processing techniques using in high models Cheetah 15K.4 are involved in drives Cheetah 10K.7. Engines concern these processing techniques with hydrodynamic bearings and advanced mechanisms for data integrity and error correction support, for example. Despite many refinements providing growth of productivity, new models Cheetah 10K.7 have the same metrics on consumption of energy, shock resistance and shumnosti, as a prior series of hard disks Cheetah 10K.6.

Cheetah 10K.7 set is presented by models in size of 73 Gbytes, 146 Gbytes and 300 Gbytes. Average time between failures makes 1,4 million hours. Testing was led under the circuit 24х7, that corresponds to the real loads which are taking place at firms.

In conclusion of the given short browse devoted to release by Seagate corporation of new products, in table 1-3 some characteristics of the created and announced disk drives are resulted.

Table 1. Disk drives of Seagate corporation of sector «Consumer Storage»

Table 2. Disk drives of Seagate corporation of sector «Personal Storage»

Table 3. Disk drives of Seagate corporation of sector «Enterprise Storage»

It is necessary to add, that productivity of new hard disk drives and the arrangements created on their basis, it will be researched after their appearance in the computer market.

In article company Seagate substances have been used