NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS GO GREEN — SEAGATE HYBRID HARD DRIVE USHERS IN NEW ERA
OF POWER-THRIFTY, HIGHER PERFORMANCE MOBILE COMPUTING
Seagate ships energy-efficient, fast-responding Momentus 5400 PSD notebook
hard drive; heralds new generation of computer storage for laptops, other
computers
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — October 8, 2007 — Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX),
the world’s number one hard drive maker, today launched a new era of
digital storage by shipping in volume hybrid notebook disc drives that
combine disc storage with flash memory to deliver ultra power efficiency,
faster boot-ups and greater reliability for the exploding laptop PC market.
“With instant access to content an increasingly essential part of the
digital lifestyle, laptop users expect systems with snappy response, longer
battery life and new levels of durability,” said Tom Major, Seagate vice
president, Personal Compute Business. “Seagate is delivering in volume
worldwide the best of two worlds — hard disc drives and flash memory — to
enable laptop PCs with cutting-edge capabilities and tighten the connection
between users and their information.”
Seagate has been at the forefront of introducing energy-saving features on
its hard drives, and the new Momentus 5400 PSD hard drive ends the
perennial trade-off for notebook PC makers. Laptop users want faster
systems, but boosting laptop PC performance with higher speed components
has traditionally meant higher power consumption and shorter battery life,
raising the question: How do you reduce power consumption while delivering
faster access to notebook data?
Combine power-efficient, quick-response flash memory with a fast hard disc
drive.
The new Momentus 5400 PSD (Power Savings Drive) hard drive uses
non-volatile cache, or flash memory, to cost-effectively deliver the
benefits of solid state disc drives. The Momentus hard drive places
commonly used hard drive data onto a large 256MB flash memory to deliver
these capabilities:
Faster boot-up — Once a notebook is turned on, a traditional hard drive’s
platters must spin up before boot-up can begin. Hybrid hard drives load
boot-up files on the flash memory to minimize this delay. Once the drive
spins up, computer files are pulled simultaneously from the spinning media
and the flash.
Lower power consumption — Seagate’s Momentus 5400 PSD hard drives reduce
hard disc drive power draw by up to 50 percent and extends battery life —
especially important in mobile applications — by reducing platter spin
time. In hybrid mode, the hard drive’s spindle motors spin down,
dramatically reducing the drive’s power requirements.
Greater reliability — Reducing platter spin time extends drive life by
minimizing wear and tear. In hybrid mode, the drive locks its read-write
heads in place, enabling the drive to withstand 900 Gs of shock, the rough
equivalent of dropping a laptop from a height of six feet to a hard surface.
Higher performance — Hybrid hard drives also quicken access to laptop
data. Windows Vista’s ReadyDrive technology uses Vista Superfetch to
analyze computer usage patterns — such as how frequently a worker accesses
certain files — and place commonly accessed user data in the flash memory
to shorten system response time.
“We’re thrilled Seagate is bringing to market hybrid hard drives that take
full advantage of Windows Vista,” said Dennis Moulton, product manager of
Windows Client marketing at Microsoft. “It is this type of innovation in
the ecosystem that helps move the bar, and we’re excited about the
productivity gains this helps bring to our customers in combination with
Windows Vista.”
All versions of Windows Vista deliver native support for hybrid drives, so
system builders and end users alike can take advantage of hybrid hard drive
technology today. Hybrid technology also delivers benefits for desktop,
enterprise and other hard drives. Look for hybrid technology on other
Seagate drive platforms in the future.
Videocast: Seagate Delivers Hybrid Hard Drive To view the videocast on the
subject of Seagate’s new hybrid hard drives, please visit
(http://www.podtech.net/home/3805/seagate-announces-hybrid-drive-for-laptops).
About Seagate
Seagate is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of
hard disc drives, providing products for a wide-range of applications,
including Enterprise, Desktop, Mobile Computing, Consumer Electronics and
Branded Solutions. Seagate’s business model leverages technology leadership
and world-class manufacturing to deliver industry-leading innovation and
quality to its global customers, and to be the low cost producer in all
markets in which it participates. The company is committed to providing
award-winning products, customer support and reliability to meet the
world’s growing demand for information storage. Seagate can be found around
the globe and at www.seagate.com.