January 8, 2008 With the need for a fast, easy way to store, backup, share and transport data and multimedia files fueling explosive growth in the worldwide storage industry it is not surprising that companies are rolling out drives to fill this need at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to be held in Las Vegas from January 7-10. Among them is Samsung's new Spinpoint M6 500GB, the world’s first 500GB 2.5” hard drive that fits in the industry’s standard 9.5mm height dimension.
Samsung announces 2.5” 500GB HD drive for mainstream applications
Coming hot on the heels of Hitachi's introduction of the the half-terabyte (500GB) Travelstar 5K500 http://www.gizmag.com/hitachi-5k500-asus-m70-notebook/8580/, Samsung's industry standard size Spinpoint M6 consists of three 166GB platters in a 2.5” hard disk drive frame measuring just 9.5mm in height. Mainstream notebook PCs can now support capacity of up to one terabyte by installing two Spinpoint M6 500GB drives.
The Spinpoint M6 500GB hard drive features a 5400rpm spindle speed, a 8MB cache, and 3.0Gbps SATA interface with a free fall sensor and a rotational vibration sensor available as optional features. Perpendicular Magnetic Recording technology enables the 500GB drive to store 160,000 digital images, 125 hours of DVD movies, or 60 hours of high definition video images. The drive also features Samsung’s Flying on Demand head technology that improves recording stability over changing temperature ranges.
Samsung’s Spinpoint M6 500GB is set for release in March 2008.
New F1 RAID Class 3.5” SATA hard drive featuring 1TB of capacity from Samsung
Finally Samsung has also announced its new F1 RAID Class 3.5” SATA hard drive featuring 1TB of capacity specifically designed and manufactured for enterprise storage and surveillance applications. Offering the world’s highest recording density using only three platters and running at 7,200rpm, the F1R drive is designed for demanding applications such as database, email servers, web servers, super computing, software development, data warehousing, surveillance, call center and nearline/backup storage systems.
The Spinpoint F1R provids a mean time between failure (MTBF) of up to 1.2 million hours and offers enterprise class features such as command completion time limit, and vibration tolerance with RV controller (RVC). It features a 16 or 32MB cache, a Serial ATA 3.0Gbps interface, a 175MB/s maximum media transfer rate, and NCQ for random I/O performance. The three-platter structure provides a higher data storage density per platter (334GB), resulting in faster data processing speeds when compared with other 1TB drives. The optimized electronics and power saving modes reduce power consumption and resulting heat dissipation, which Smasung claims makes the F1R the coolest operating 1TB drive in its class using an average of 6.7 watts in idle mode and an average of 7.2 watts in random seek mode under test conditions. In addition, the drive operates at just 2.7 Bell in idle mode.
Samsung says the new Spinpoint F1R is ideal for use in video surveillance and similar environments with critical features such as high reliability in heavy-duty, 24/7 operations, low power consumption, improved performance, high capacity, and A/V streaming firmware command set. The Spinpoint F1R ensures low heat generation and power consumption, high durability and stability in extreme environments (low/high temperatures, high humidity), stable performance for prolonged operation periods, and large storage capacity for extended recording time. Samsung has also improved recording stability via PMR recording and data integrity, and reliability through full-extent dynamic Flying-On-Demand (FOD) control. This advanced FOD control technology ensures enhanced read/write sensitivity by dynamically lowering the fly-height in read or write mode while maintaining a consistent and higher fly-height across the disk in standard mode.
The Spinpoint F1R drive features a 7200RPM spindle speed, and a 32MB cache with an optimized firmware system, a rotational vibration controller (RVC) for vibration tolerance, and an optimized system-on-chip (SOC) controller that lowers power consumption and will be available in the first quarter of 2008.
Large Capacity AC Drives from Hitachi
The SJ700 extends Hitachi’s model range of industrial AC Variable Speed Drives up to 500 hp, and significantly expands on the performance, capabilities and functions of the SJ300. Three models, 250 hp, 400 hp and 500 hp are being released while the SJ300 remains to cover the range from 200 hp and below. An improved Sensorless Vector (SLV) control algorithm enables the SJ700 to develop more than 150% starting torque at 0.3 Hz and using Hitachi’s “0 Hz Domain” open-loop control mode, the SJ700 can develop 130% torque at 0 Hz, making it ideal for vertical lift applications. At the same time, Hitachi has greatly simplified the autotuning process, making commissioning trouble-free.
The new models also include Hitachi’s Easy Sequence (EzSQ) built in programming function, which Hitachi claim is like having a Industrial Control System (PLC) built into the inverter and that, in many cases, eliminates the need for a separate PLC. The program is developed on a PC, and then downloaded to the inverter using the EzSQ software which is provided at no charge. Other new features include patented Micro Surge Voltage suppression (to protect the motor winding insulation), advance trip avoidance functions and configurable sink/source logic on I/O. Standard features such as built-in RS485 Modbus/RTU communication, and options for other communications networks, such as Ethernet Modbus/TCP, DeviceNet, Profibus and LonWorks have not been overlooked and the SJ700 can be configured via the front-mounted keypad or using Hitachi’s ProDrive PC-based software.
Verbatim’s new family of 2.5” SmartDisk Portable Hard Drives
Finally, Verbatim will debut a new family of 2.5” SmartDisk Portable Hard Drives at CES. The new line of SmartDisk 2.5” Portable Hard Drives (HDs) are palm-sized external drives that will be available for both Windows and Mac users wanting to add 120, 160, 250, or 320GB of removable capacity without having to open their computer.
Verbatim has enhanced the versatility of its 2.5” SmartDisk HDs by offering them with choice of a USB interface or a Combo USB/FireWire interface. With the Combo USB/FireWire interface, the device also becomes interoperable and files can be transferred between a Mac and a PC and the drives support the “Time Machine” backup feature in Mac OS X Leopard. The bus-powered, 5400 RPM drives deliver transfer speeds of up to 480MB per second (MB/sec.) when connected with USB 2.0 and up to 400MB/sec. for FireWire connections without requiring an AC power adapter. Included in the USB-only models is BounceBack Express backup software, an easy-to-use backup utility that incorporates scheduling, backup sets, automatic launch options and a quick restore feature.
Verbatim 120, 160, 250 and 320GB 2.5” SmartDisk Portable HDs will be available in January 2008 at USD$99.00 for the 120GB USB version.
