14 DAY TRIAL // Hitachi seems to be bringing out all the big guns in order to tackle Christmas and CES challenges as well as possible, so it just launched the Ultrastar C10K900 HDD series.
This line of hard disk drive units is not at all what one may dub a conventional set of storage devices, and this is because of more than the platter speed.
Granted, the performance alone is enough to make them a category all on their own (almost).
After all, not every HDD can brag about being able to spin those disks at 10,000 RPM (rotations per minute).
Also, few drives can say that their sequential and random performances are 18% and 17% higher (or more), respectively, than those of even the closest competitors.
Nonetheless, what might raise a few eyebrows are the capacities.
300 GB and 450 GB drives are more or less easy enough to swallow, but the other two don't exactly fit the conventional bill with 600 GB and 900 GB.
One would more easily look forward to the common 750 GB and 1 TB, not that the two above are anything to be disappointed in.
The rest of the specifications are high as well, since a performance of 10,000 RPM demands no less.
64 MB of cache are joined by the SAS (Serial attached SCSI) 6.0 Gbps interface and seek times of 3.8 milliseconds, plus a latency of 3.0 ms and a power draw of 5.8/3.0W. Some models will feature Bulk Data Encryption as well.
“When combining the drive’s capacity, leading performance, low power and proven quality design, the Ultrastar C10K900 is the ideal choice for today’s enterprise-class servers and networked storage arrays,” said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, Hitachi GST.
“Because of our quality reputation and commitment, we are thrilled to report that our enterprise drives continue to be recognized as a leader in quality and reliability by OEM customers worldwide.
“We are confident that with our new Ultrastar C10K900 drive family, Hitachi customers will continue to benefit from our field-proven platform, industry-leading technology, performance and high reliability.”
No prices yet, but small quantities will start being produced in Q1, 2012.