Oh how cute.. it’s not everyday we get to hear of a new catch phrase. Hitachi’s got a new one for all of us - calling this time period the beginning of the “Tera Era”. They also took this opportunity to introduce two new green drives - the Deskstar 7K1000.B and the Deskstar E7K1000 for business critical applications.

So what’s up with the “Tera Era” statement? Well Hitachi sees “digital information” being “created, captured, and duplicated around the world” at an “unrelenting pace.” (yeah it’s called bittorrent! I kid…. sorta) Soo.. with multimedia content ever increasing, and computers ever more prevalent in our societies, one would figure that we all need just a bit more disk space. (yeah no duh..) Ah but no one else has come up with a good slogan for this time period so why not dub it the Tera Era. There ya go.

OK.. back to the matter at hand, we’ve got ourselves a couple of new drives from Hitachi. First up, there’s the Deskstar 7K1000.B which features:

• 7200 RPM rotational speed
• Three-disk design
• Improves idle power consumption up to 43 percent over 1TB predecessor
• Optional Bulk Data Encryption (BDE) provides protection against data loss and piracy
• Utilizes AES encryption
• SATA 3Gb/s interface
• Also available in 160GB, 250GB, 320GB, 500GB, 640GB, and 750GB capacities
• Idle power for 1TB drive is 5.2 W

For business critical applications, there’s the Deskstar E7K1000 which features:

• 32MB buffer
• five year warranty
• 1.2 million hour Mean Time Before Failure
• Rotational Vibration Safeguard (RVS) technology
• Same low power characteristics as 7K1000.B
• SATA 3Gb/s interface
• Also available in 500GB, and 750GB capacities

The new drives will be available this month.

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Technorati Tags: Hitachi, Desktar 7K1000.B, E7K1000, Hard drives, Tera Era

Notebook users aren’t the only ones blessed with new Samsung storage products. Enterprise users will be happy to hear that Samsung has announced mass production of their new Spinpoint F1 RAID class 3.5 inch SATA hard drives with  1TB of storage capacities. According to Samsung, the new F1R  hard drives are ideal for enterprise storage and surveillance application needs and come with a whopping seven year limited warranty.

Features of the new Spinpoint F1R drives include:

• Uses only three platters (334 GB per platter)
• 7200RPM speed
• MTBF of 1.2 million hours
• 16 or 32 MB cache
• SATA 3.0 Gbps interface
• 175 MB/s maximum media transfer rate
• NCQ for random I/O performance
• Optimized electronics and power saving modes reduce power consumption and reduce heat dissipation
• Rotational Vibration Controller for vibration tolerance
• System-on-Chip (SOC) controller

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Technorati Tags: Samsung, Spinpoint F1 RAID, F1R, SATA HDD

Samsung unveiled two new notebook hard drives today - the world’s largest capacity laptop hard drive in the form of the Spinpoint M6 and one of the world’s fastest laptop drives in the form of Spinpoint MP2. The M6 features a whopping 500GB of storage space while the MP2 features 250GB of space and a rotational speed of 7200RPM.

Features of the Spinpoint M6 include:

• 500GB of space made of three 167GB platters
• fits industry standard 9.5 mm height
• 5400 RPM
• 8MB cache
• 3 Gbps SATA interface
• Free-Fall sensor available as an optional feature
• Flying-on-Demand head technology for recording stability over changing temperature ranges

Features of the Spinpoint MP2 include:

• 250GB of space made of two 125GB platters
• 7200RPM
• SATA II 3.0 Gbps interface
• Native Command Queuing functions
• SilentSeek and NoiseGuard technologies
• Optional Free Fall Sensor
• 16MB buffer
• Available from 80GB to 250GB capacities

Both hard drive models are shipping now with the M6 priced at $299 and the MP2 at $199.

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Technorati Tags: Samsung Spinpoint MP2, Spinpoint M6, laptop hard drive

Solid State Drives are certainly the wave of the future but they’re currently too expensive when it comes to price per gigabyte. Looking to address the performance/cost factor, Apacer has introduced what they’re calling combo SSD drives. These 2.5 inch drives feature the use of both multi-level cell (MLC) and single-level-cell (SLC) NAND flash chips. The 2.5 inch combo SSD supports up to 96 GB of storage capacity comprised of 32GB in SLC NAND flash and the rest using MLC flash. Apacer will also adjust the combination according to a customer’s needs.

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Technorati Tags: Apacer, Combo SSD

Here’s an interesting computer peripheral - it’s the new Addonics Dual CF-SATA HDD adapter which takes two compact flash cards and turns them into a single drive usable as a direct 2.5 inch SATA drive replacement in a computer. The two compact flash cards can be configured as RAID 1, RAID 0, or as one large compact flash drive. You can then insert the Dual CF-SATA HDD adapter into a computer using a mounting bracket. The adapter can be installed using the SATA interface or via a USB interface. The best part - the CF cards look like any other drive to the OS - no drivers are needed for this to work. This sounds like a great way to utilize inexpensive CF cards as a power efficient 2.5 inch hard drive replacement. The Dual CF-SATA HDD adapter can be purchased on the Addonics Online Store for $79.99.

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Toshiba introduced a new line of 1.8 inch SATA Hard Drives yesterday available in two capacities - an 80 GB drive (model MK8017GSG) and a 160GB drive (model MK1617GSG). The new drives target the mobile market and feature the following specifications:

• Interface speed of 1.5Gbps
• 5400 RPM
• More environmental efficient than current models
• Improves maximum internal data transfer rate by approximately 17 percent
• High vibration and shock resistance
• Average seek time of 15 ms
• Measures 54 x 78.5 x  8.0 mm
• Operating shock resistance of 500G, 2msec
• Non-operating shock resistance of 1500G, 1msec

The new drives will enter mass production in August.

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Technorati Tags: Toshiba, 1.8 inch SATA Hard Drive

Western Digital launched a new line of WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM 3.5 inch SATA hard drives on Tuesdays. These drives are designed for high performance desktops, workstations, and multi-drive systems and come in two capacities - 750GB and 1TB.

Features of the WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM drives include:

• Dual processor
• 32 MB cache
• 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.

The Caviar Black joins the Caviar Blue and Caviar Green drive product lines. The Blue Drives are WD’s standard hard drives that balance performance and reliability while the Green Drives utilize WD’s GreenPower technology for cool, quiet, power-efficient performance.

The new Caviar Black drives will be available next week with the 750GB model going for $199 and the 1TB model going for $249.

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Technorati Tags: Western Digital, Caviar Black, 750GB, 1TB

Addonics has introduced a couple of interesting accessory items designed for the built-in Apple iPod hard drive.

The first accessory is the Addonics Toshiba 1.8″ ZIF to 2.5 inch IDE hard drive connector converter which allows users to connect the internal iPod hard drive as a 2.5 inch hard drive to other computers. If your iPod is dead but you think the hard drive is salvageable, then this accessory will allow you to reclaim that hard drive as an add-on for your PC. You can even use a 2.5 inch to 3.5 inch converter kit from Addonics to get the drive to work with a standard 40 pin IDE cable. Key features are as follows:

• Enable Toshiba 1.8″ hard drive to be used like a 2.5″ IDE hard drive
• Choice of ZIF connector converter (new 1.8″ hdd commonly found on iPOD) or IDE-50 pin connector converter (first generation of 1.8″ hard drive)
• Attach to standard 40 pins IDE cable (require optional 2.5″ - 3.5″ IDE converter)
• 1.8 inch 50 pin to 2.5 inch connector is $14.99
• 1.8 inch ZIF to 2.5 inch connector is $17.99

The second accessory from Addonics is the Addonics 1.8 inch ZIF-CF Adapter. To me, this is the more interesting product announcement because it allows you to replace the internal iPod hard drive with flash-based storage media.  You can utilize several types of Compact Flash media (supports PIO, DMA, UDMA4) with this accessory item. Simply remove the internal hard drive from your iPod and then insert a CF card with the ZIF-CF adapter and you’ll be all set. Key features are as follows:

• Install Compact Flash into a device which uses a 1.8″ hard drive with ZIF connector
• Can be used like a 2.5″ hard drive using the optional ZIF to 2.5″ IDE connector converter
• Compatible with Apple iPod
• Can be installed into laptops which use 1.8″ ZIF connector
• Current Compact Flash speeds support up to 40MB/s with UDMA4
• Supports PIO, DMA, UDMA depending on type of Compact Flash installed
• OS independent
• Fully RoHS compliant
• Price of $23.99

Technorati Tags: Addonics, Apple iPod, 1.8\" ZIF to 2.5 inch IDE hard drive connector, 1.8 inch ZIF-CF adapter

Hitachi announced their fourth generation notebook hard drive today - the Travelstar 7K320. According to the company, the Travelstar 7K320 delivers 60 percent higher capacity (320GB) than its predecessor, and improves application performance by 12 percent and power consumption by 22 percent. Hitachi also offers an optional Bulk Data Encryption for increased data security and plans to ship an enhanced-availability model for low-duty-cycle 24/7 applications.

Features of the Hitachi Travelstar 7K320 include the following:

• Shock protection of 400Gs
• 7200 RPM speeds with 5400 RPM equivalent power consumption
• 320GB of space
• SATA 3Gb/s interface
• 4.2 ms average latency
• 12 ms average read time
• 1.0W active idle
• 0.8W low-power idle

The new Hitachi Travelstar 7K320 is now available to customers worldwide. The enhanced availability version will be available during the third quarter.

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Technorati Tags: Hitachi, Travelstar 7K320, Notebook hard drive

Western Digital announced their next generation “Raptor” series of hard drives in the form of the new 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor drives. These drives offer twice the performance and 35 percent performance increases over previous models from Western Digital. The WD VelociRaptor offer 300GB of storage space in a 2.5 inch enterprise form factor. The drive is then enclosed in a 3.5 inch mounting frame with a built-in heat sink dubbed the “IcePack”. This allows the 2.5 inch drive to fit in 3.5 inch drive bays and also stay cool while operating at high speeds.

Features of the WD VelociRaptor include:

• 10,000 RPM
• SATA 3Gb/s interface
• 16MB cache
• 1.4 million hours MTBF
• Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF) - optimizes performance when drives are in vibration-prone multi-drive chassis
• SecurePark - parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is off.
• 5 year limited warranty

So when do you get your chance to play with the WD VelociRaptor? Well, according to Western Digital, the VelociRaptor (model WD3000GLFS) will be available in Alienware’s high performance ALX gaming desktop by the end of April.  The drive will be available exclusively through Alienware for all of this month and then will be available through the online WD store and through resellers by the middle of May. MSRP for the 300GB VelociRaptor is $299.99.

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Technorati Tags: Western Digital, WD, VelociRaptor,