Seagate Reveals HDD With 1 TB Platters

The Seagate Barracuda XT 3 TB HDD will be the company's first to use 1 TB platters.

For those who still can't give up the tried-and-true method of serving up data on a silver platter, Seagate has revealed a new flagship 3.5-inch hard drive with an areal density of 625 Gigabits per square inch using 1 TB platters. The drive, slated as the "world's first" for the general consumer, will be added to the company's GoFlex Desk line sometime in mid-2011 and eventually offered in four storage capacities: 3 TB, 2 TB, 1.5 TB and 1 TB.

"Organizations of all sizes and consumers worldwide are amassing digital content at light speed, generating immense demand for storage of digital content of every imaginable kind," said Rocky Pimentel, Seagate Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing. "We remain keenly focused on delivering the storage capacity, speed and manageability our customers need to thrive in an increasingly digital world."

Seagate said that the first model-- the Barracuda XT 3 TB HDD-- will have enough storage to house up to 120 HD movies, 1,500 video games, thousands of photos and virtually countless hours of digital music. Compatible with both PC and Mac, the drive will also come packed with an NTFS driver for Mac, allowing it to store and access files from both Windows and Mac OS X computers without reformatting. Rotational speeds and other hardware specs were not provided.

Although Seagate is the first HDD manufacturer to bring the new high-density drives to the market, Samsung was actually the first to break the barrier on storage capacity for hard drives using one-terabyte-per-platter areal density. The tech was shown at CeBIT 2011 and will be used to create 2 TB HDDS using only two platters, the company said.

Beyond PMR: 3D Tower Hard Drives

Researchers at Spintec claim to have found a way to push the boundaries of traditional magnetic hard drive recording technology once again.

An approach called 3D Towers is believed to reach to a density level well beyond 1 Tb per square inch.

The original Winchester magnetic recording technology was generally believes to hit a density of about 250 Gb (per square inch), but the move to perpendicular magnetic recording open the way to about 1 Tb, which will be reached with two to three years, according to industry expectations. At that point, the hard drive industry may have to move to further enhancements, such as heat-assisted recording technologies.    

However, it appears that scientists have found another way to avoid the expensive move to heat-assisted approaches one more time. Spintec demonstrated "several magnetic layers" to move beyond today's PMR hard drives.  

"Our new approach involves using bit-patterned media, which are made of arrays of physically separated magnetic nanodots, with each nanodot carrying one bit of information," said Jerome Moritz a researcher with Spintec. "To further extend the storage density, it's possible to increase the number of bits per dots by stacking several magnetic layers to obtain a multilevel magnetic recording device." From the press release:

"Moritz and colleagues were able to demonstrate that the best way to achieve a 2-bit-per-dot media involves stacking in-plane and perpendicular-to-plane magnetic media atop each dot. The perpendicularly magnetized layer can be read right above the dot, whereas the in-plane magnetized layer can be read between dots. This enables doubling of the areal density for a given dot size by taking better advantage of the whole patterned media area."

The researchers released an image of two-bit-per-dot patterned media, but there was no information when such storage media could actually be produced.

SanDisk Buying SSD Developer Pliant Tech

Sandisk is buying enterprise SSD developer Pliant Technology for $327 million.

Typically when SanDisk comes to mind, it usually means a memory card or USB storage. Most consumers aren’t aware than SanDisk offers a few solid state drives, one with 60 GB and the other with 120 GB. The business sector has an even wider variety, adding the P4 line featuring various ways to interface including SATA, micro SATA, mSATA, LIF and BGA, and the iSSD line of integrated drives that are used in tablets, smartbooks, ultra-thin PCs and more.

But SanDisk's position in the enterprise market may get a turbo-charged boost, as the company has announced an agreement with enterprise SSD developer Pliant Technology. According to the agreement, SanDisk will acquire the company by forking over approximately $327 million in cash and provide certain "equity-based incentives." The deal is expected to close by the end of SanDisk's second fiscal quarter.

SanDisk is obviously after Pliant's technology. The latter company sells ultra-high performance enterprise solid state drives based on the SAS protocol and MLC NAND Flash memory. It also has plans to release PCIe-based solutions for high-performance compute servers. The lower cost of MLC is a key enabler for the broad adoption of SSDs in the enterprise market, the company said in a statement.

"Flash memory is making significant inroads into the enterprise by dramatically increasing application performance and reducing power consumption," said Sanjay Mehrotra, SanDisk president and chief executive officer. "We believe that the combination of Pliant's innovative technology and enterprise-level system expertise with SanDisk's high-quality, large-scale MLC memory production is a winning value proposition for customers."

"Our advanced flash technology roadmap and flash management capability will complement Pliant's strengths and allow us to lead the way in reliability and performance in the Enterprise SSD market," Mahrotra added.

Intel Announces New 320 SSD Series

Intel's new line of SSDs is based on 25-nm NAND flash memory and offers up to 600 GB of storage.

Monday Intel officially launched a new line of 2.5-inch solid-state drives (SSDs) called the 320 Series. The new line replaces and builds upon Intel's current high-performing X25-M SATA SSDs, offering better performance and reliability.

According to Intel, the 320 SSDs are based on 25-nm Intel NAND Flash Memory which should offer a 30-percent price reduction compared to second-generation drives. That also means consumers will see larger storage capacities of up to 600 GB thanks to the 25-nm processing and lower manufacturing costs.

"Intel designed new quality and reliability features into our SSDs to take advantage of the latest 25nm silicon, so we could deliver cost advantages to our customers," said Pete Hazen, director of marketing for the Intel Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Solutions Group.

Targeting mainstream consumers, corporate IT or PC enthusiasts looking for a performance boost over HDDs, the 320 Series arrives with 40 GB, 80 GB, 120 GB, 160 GB, 300 GB and 600 GB versions. Surprisingly, all six will use the SATA 3.0 Gb/s interface (rather than the speedier SATA 6.0 Gb/s), but that also means the drives will be supported by "more than 1 billion" SATA 3.0 Gb/s PCs already sitting in homes and businesses worldwide.

On the technical front, Intel's 320 Series produces up to 39,500 input/output operations per second (IOPS) random reads and 23,000 IOPS random writes on its highest-capacity drives. They also provide up to 220 MB/s sequential writes and up to 270 MB/s sequential reads. Intel also threw in 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard capabilities on every drive, to help protect personal data in the event of theft or loss.

"Already one of the most solid-performing SSDs over time, Intel continues to raise the bar on SSD reliability in the way it has architected its third generation, using proprietary firmware and controller, to further demonstrate that not all solid-state drives are created equal. In this rendition, Intel creatively uses spare area to deploy added redundancies that will help keep user data protected, even in the event of a power loss," the company said.

Although consumer pricing wasn't provided, tags for retailers purchasing the new SSDs in quantities of 1000 are $89 for the 40 GB version, $159 for 80 GB, $209 for 120 GB, $289 for 160 GB, $520 for 300 GB and $1,069 for 600 GB.

Intel SSDs can be purchased in the United States from such retailers as Best Buy or Fry’s Electronics, plus a variety of resellers, retailers or Internet e-tailers such as Newegg.com or Amazon.com worldwide.

G.Skill's New Phoenix EVO SSD Uses 2xnm NAND

G.Skill is launching an affordable SSD utilizing 2x-nm NAND flash and SandForce-s SF-1222 controller.

Friday G.Skill announced an upcoming SATA II-based solid-state disk called the Phoenix EVO. The new 2.5-inch SSD will feature 2x-nm MLC NAND flash (likely 25-nm) and the SandForce SF-1222 controller, providing read speeds of up to 280 MB/s and write speeds pf up to 270 MB/s.

"Keeping pace with the flash manufacturers’ transition from 3xnm to 2xnm, G.Skill has utilized 2xnm flash chips for its award winning SSD, Phoenix family," the company said. "To ensure the best performance and reliability during the transition, G.Skill has teamed up closely with SandForce and has run G.Skill Phoenix EVO through a wide range of rigorous tests with the latest firmware. All Phoenix EVO drives only use strictly selected original flash chips from key suppliers to guarantee the top reliability and stability."

Although pricing is unknown at this point, the tag should be relatively cheap compared to G.Skill's other offerings like the Phoenix PRO and Phoenix II SSDs. The EVO will only offer 115 GB of storage and connect via a SATA 3.0 Gbps interface, but will arrive with a reliable MTBF (mean time before failure) of 1 million hours, a three-year warranty and built-in EDC/ECC functions. The drive doesn't provide any DRAM cache.

As for a delivery date, G.Skill said the Phoenix EVO will be available through authorized distributors within the next few weeks (early April). In the meantime, the company is offering benchmarks on the product page (CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64, ATTO Disk Benchmark, AS SSD) so that consumers can "easily choose the right product according to their desire and budget." Transparency is an epic win for everyone.

OCZ's Hybrid SSD/HDD PCIe Card Spotted

OCZ is showcasing its HDD/SSD PCIe-based hybrid this week at Computex.

This week during Computex, OCZ is showcasing a unique storage solution called the RevoDrive Hybrid, a marriage of mechanical and solid-state storage technologies on a single PCI Express x4 card. OCZ has yet to determine final configurations, but expects to release a base model featuring a 500 GB HDD and a 60 GB SSD. There's also talk of a second model which may sport a beefier 1 TB HDD and a 120 GB SSD.

According to hands-on reports, the hybrid drive will use a 2.5-inch HDD provided by a third party although OCZ is still trying to determine whether it wants to use a 5,400-RPM or a 7,200-RPM model. The SSD component actually serves as a cache, and can even use multiple SandForce controllers arranged in a RAID 0 array. This unique caching scheme will allow the slower 5,400-RPM drive to be used without sacrificing performance.

OCZ said that the Hybrid's cache will be managed by Nvelo's Dataplex software which is capable of caching both read and writes up to 120 GB of solid state storage. According to Nvelo, Dataplex actually demonstrates better performance in PCMark Vantage results than the Smart Response caching scheme available with Intel's Z68 Express chipset.

OCZ also provided a spec sheet claiming that the Hybrid drive has sustained read speeds of 575 MB/s and sustained write speeds of 500 MB/s. It also reportedly has a random 4KB write rate of 30,000 IOPS. That could be tweaked even further before the PCIe-based drive is expected to hit the market this July. OCZ hasn't officially released a ship date or pricing, but the base model is expected to retail for around $350.

Currently OCZ is offering two RevoDrive models without the HDD riding piggyback: the original RevoDrive PCIe SSD and the RevoDrive X2 PCIe SSD.

Kingston Reveals its First SandForce-based SSD

The Kingston HyperX will use the SandForce SF-2281 controller for sequential read speeds up to 525 MB/s.

This week at Computex, Kingston revealed its very first 2.5-inch SSD using a SandForce controller targeting enthusiasts, gamers and performance users. Dubbed as the Kingston HyperX, the SSD is based on SandForce SF-2281 controllers and a SATA 6 Gb/s interface, and ships next month in 120 and 240 GB capacities.

"This launch is very exciting for us at Kingston," said Ariel Perez, SSD business manager. "The SandForce controller allows us to deliver the high-end performance that is needed for power-users, gamers, and enthusiasts. Integrating a final production quality controller and firmware, and undergoing extensive testing has been an exacting process, but well worth the wait. By pairing SandForce’s latest controller with Intel 25-nm compute NAND (P/E 5K), we have built an SSD that meets the requirements set by true enthusiasts.”

As stated, the SF-2281 controller is paired with Intel's 25-nm Compute NAND (P/E 5K), allowing for sequential read/write throughputs of 525/480 MB/s and IOPS of 40,000/60,000 (240GB). SandForce DuraClass Technology provides best in class endurance whereas Advanced Wear-Leveling technology ensures that flash memory blocks are consumed at a very balanced rate. Additional features include TRIM and S.M.A.R.T. Support, and user-configurable over-provisioning for tweaking performance to suit the user's individual needs.

"Enthusiasts have long known the Kingston HyperX brand as the industry leader in cutting edge memory," the company said. "The new HyperX SSD continues this tradition of innovation and high performance by pairing the latest SandForce controller with Intel® 25nm compute NAND (P/E 5K) to provide the performance and endurance that the most demanding users require."

Both Kingston HyperX SSDs are expected to ship on July 11, 2011. They'll be backed by a three-year warranty and Kingston's 24/7 tech support.