The storage division of Hitachi, known as the Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, has recently announced that its small form factor enterprise series of hard drives has reached the second generation. With the announcement, the company has introduced the new 10,000RPM Ultrastar C10K300 hard drive, designed for optimized power and performance requirements of products such as rack-mounted servers and network-attached arrays. This is the first of the company's Ultrastar drives to boast a SAS connectivity interface, delivering 100 percent faster data throughput compared to its 3Gb/s predecessor.

“Space constraints and low power considerations in data centers have driven the transition to blade servers that rely on small form factor enterprise hard drives. The Ultrastar C10K300 is positioned to capitalize on and accelerate this trend with significant improvements in performance, power efficiency and configuration flexibility,” said Brendan Collins, vice president, Product Marketing, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “The new drive delivers the quality and reliability that our enterprise customers have come to expect from Hitachi.”

According to Hitachi, its new Ultrastar C10K300 has been specifically designed for use in server/storage products, providing a more convenient 2.5-inch design, consequently offering a low-power profile and improved thermal characteristics. The 2.5-inch drive occupies 70 percent less physical space, while the power consumption is reduced by up to 65 percent, when compared to similar 3.5-inch enterprise drives.

The new solution is going to provide its users with a choice for a 147GB or 300GB capacity, shipping with a dual-port 6Gb/s a SAS interface. Additional features include Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) motors and Rotational Vibration Safeguard (RVS) technology, both of which are designed to improve the drive's overall performance.

Despite no official word on the drive's pricing, the new Ultrastar C10K300 is already shipping to Hitachi customers worldwide.