Hitachi GST releases small HDD for servers

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has released a 2.5-inch drive for high-density servers that will compete with similar technology from Seagate.

The Ultrastar C10K900, which began shipping on Tuesday, is a 10,000RPM hard-disk drive with a 6GBps SAS interface. It is available in 300GB, 450GB, 600GB and 900GB capacities.

"The Ultrastar C10K900 is designed to provide higher server/storage density through a compact 2.5-inch design, a low-power profile and improved thermal characteristics," Hitachi GST said in a statement. "The small form factor drive occupies 70 percent less physical space and consumes up to 65 percent less power than similar 3.5-inch enterprise drives."

Average seek times are 3.8ms with sub-3ms latency. Power management is dealt with by Hitachi Advanced Power Management Technology, which can be pre-programmed or manually started on the system. This gives the drive a random read/write power draw of around 5.8W and 3W when idle, Hitachi GST said. The drives have an encryption feature for securing data.

Hitachi's main competitor is Seagate, whose 10,000RPM 2.5-inch Savvio 10K.5 drive has similar characteristics as the Ultrastar, but doesn't have the same level of power efficiency as its idle power draws 4.42W. The Savvio 10K.5 was released in March.

Hitachi GST began shipping qualification units of the UltrastarC10K900 on Tuesday, with general shipments expected in the first quarter of 2012.