07/07, 11:45am
New units use power-saving WD Caviar Green drives
Western Digital has launched an update to its line of Mac-styled MyBook Studio external hard drives. The new units are available with power-conserving WD Caviar Green series hard drives in 1TB, 2TB, and 3TB capacities, and have both FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 interfaces. The drives' brushed aluminum exterior helps eliminate the need for an internal fan, which reduces noise and extends drive life. The drives are also compatible with PCs but must be reformatted.
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06/25, 10:55am
AirPort Extreme 2011 ups power, goes green
A pair of looks at the upgraded AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule has shown more upgrades and changes than first thought, including a slightly misleading view of the hard drive. One breakdown shared between AppleInsider and iFixit has shown that the new AirPort Extreme and presumably Time Capsule output about 2.8 times more power, at 392.64mW, than the previous version. A test wasn't immediately possible, but the potential existed for as much as a 60 percent range boost, though only in ideal conditions.
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10/19, 8:50am
WD Caviar Green 3TB drive official
Western Digital landed a symbolic milestone today by becoming the first to ship a hinted at 3TB internal hard drive. The Caviar Green 3TB packs 750GB per disk platter and is tailored to 64-bit platforms like Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7 64-bit that can see and boot from drives larger than 2.19TB. The drive builder goes so far as to bundle a special Advanced Host Controller Interface adapter so that 32-bit Vista and Windows 7 installs can still get to the full contents.
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12/11, 4:30pm
WD Advanced Format expands capacity
Western Digital says it has developed a technique that provides more usable space out of a given hard drive capacity. Known as Advanced Format, it reduces the amount of overhead for each data sector by pooling together information. Instead of requiring a single Sync/DAM header and ECC (error correction) block for each sector, it would create much larger 4KB sectors that use one set of each header.
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09/01, 8:40am
WD Caviar Black 2TB
Western Digital this morning at last unveiled its first 2TB hard drives intended for performance. The 2TB Caviar Black and the business-oriented RE4 spin at a full 7,200RPM but also have features rarely seen even at this end of hard disk technology: both have 64MB of cache, dual processors and dual actuators to move the drive head into position faster. It's hoped the extra features offset the potential slowdown from having to seek across four 500GB platters.
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01/27, 8:50am
WD Caviar Green 2TB
As promised, Western Digital today launched the Caviar Green 2TB, the world's first desktop hard drive to cross the 2TB milestone. The 3.5-inch SATA drive takes advantage of the 500GB per platter technology behind its 1.5TB drive to reach the record capacity but uses intelligent seek patterns and on-the-fly changes to spin speed, reducing the amount of power used in certain loading situations or in low demand.
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01/13, 3:35pm
WD Caviar Green 2TB Soon
Western Digital is on the verge of launching a record-setting hard drive, according to a tip sent to Fudzilla. Corroborated by a store listing, the leak hints at a Caviar Green model, the WD20EADS, that should top 2TB using and double the capacity of the drive maker's current line. The Green label will be earned through a power-efficient design that winds down to 5,400RPM from the normal 7,200RPM under lower demand.
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10/01, 10:35am
WD Caviar Green 1TB
Continuing its hard drive updates from earlier in the week, Western Digital today has started shipping the next wave of its Caviar Green eco-friendly drives. The upgrades use a smarter seek algorithm and aggressive caching to drop power use by about 20 percent versus the company's regular hard disks. This next update is also about 10 percent faster than earlier Green drives, according to the company's claims, and uses new storage that carries as much as 333GB per platter on the drive as well as 32MB of cache for every model.
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06/10, 9:30am
WD Caviar Black 1TB
Western Digital hopes today to ramp up the speed of high-end pro and gaming desktops with new Caviar Black desktop drives. The 3.5-inch drive comes in 750GB and 1TB storage levels like many others but includes dual processors as well as 32MB of cache that are said to speed up moving data on the drives. This added edge could be crucial for video editors and others who depend on short load times, the company says. A locked-down motor shaft and a read head that never touches the drive platters both keep the drive quiet and also reduce the physical wear on the disk.
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