Seagate releases “fastest and greenest” drive

Seagate has introduced what it says is the world's fastest and greenest hard drive the Savvio 15K.2 HDD.

The drive is a small 2.5in drive and is aimed at enterprise with a self-encryption option that uses the AES standard for government-grade security. Seagate said that the drive is part of its new unified Storage architecture, which merges disk drive interfaces, form factors and security features into a common platform.

The 15K in the titles refers to its 15,000rpm rotational speed, and the drive is offered in either 146GB of 73GB capacities. It features a SAS 2.0 interface that operates at up to 6GB/s, which the company says makes it ideal for RAID configurations.

The green aspects of the drive come from its PowerTrim technology, which Seagate claimed dynamically reduces power consumption by up to 70 per cent over larger, standard 3.5in drives.

"Server and storage array requirements in the enterprise today are especially focused on lowering power and cooling costs; satisfying growing application performance needs; and meeting government and industry compliance regulations," said Sherman Black, senior vice president of marketing and strategy and core products group at Seagate. "The Savvio 15K.2 drive and our Unified Storage architecture, address these needs head-on, by providing IT departments with a best-in-class foundation that reduces storage complexity, costs, and provides peace of mind."

"Standardising on enterprise-class small form factor disk drives with a SAS 2.0 interface, like Seagate's Savvio 15K.2 drive, will allow for economies of scale for the storage industry," according to John Rydning, IDC's Research Director for hard disk drives. "IDC expects that shipments of small form factor enterprise class drives into enterprise storage solutions will overtake traditional 3.5-inch enterprise class drives in the marketplace by 2009."

The Seagate Savvio 15K.2 is expected to begin shipping in December 2008.

Benny Har-Even

Benny Har-Even is a twenty-year stalwart of technology journalism who is passionate about all areas of the industry, but telecoms and mobile and home entertainment are among his chief interests. He has written for many of the leading tech publications in the UK, such as PC Pro and Wired, and previously held the position of technology editor at ITPro before regularly contributing as a freelancer.

Known affectionately as a ‘geek’ to his friends, his passion has seen him land opportunities to speak about technology on BBC television broadcasts, as well as a number of speaking engagements at industry events.