Hitachi outs enterprise-grade, 15,000RPM Ultrastar drives
updated 02:00 pm EDT, Tue October 13, 2009
Hitachi 15,000RPM Ultrastar drives now shipping
Hitachi has released two new hard drives on Tuesday, both turning at the fastest-possible 15,000RPM design. Part of the Ultrastar series, this includes the company's first 2.5-inch drive with the extra speed, the C15K147, and the firm's fourth-generation 3.5-inch drive, the 600GB 15K600. Either has a 6Gbps SCSI (SAS) interface, though the latter can be had with a 4Gbps Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FCAL) interface as well. The 15K600 also has one third more the capacity of its predecessor while claimed to be 23 percent faster.
Other capacities of the Ultrastar 15K600 include 300GB and 450GB, and it ties with Western Digital's 2TB Caviar Black the highest cache buffer in the industry, at 64MB.
The Ultrastar C15K147 is much smaller than 3.5-inch drives, allowing system builders to more densely pack them into servers. The new addition is said to be 11 percent higher in sequential performance and have a 23 percent faster seek time compared to the 10,000RPM drive it replaces. It's 50 percent more efficient than comparable 3.5-inch drives from Hitachi, and can be had in 73GB and 147GB capacities. The 64MB cache buffer carries over from the Ultrastar 15K600.
While both new Hitachi Ultrastar drives are said to be currently shipping, there is no indication of pricing.
