Toshiba is about to release a new series of 2.5 inch Small Form Factor drives that offer a combination of high capacity and performance. The new MBF range comes in 300, 450 and 600 GB capacities, each doing 10.025 rpms. Yes, you read that correctly; 10.025. Their press release has the text “over 10.000 rpm” in nearly every sentence; I suppose there might be a competitor with a better-specced 10.000 rpm drive…
The drives have a 6 Gbps SAS interface and a 16MB buffer, and apparently offer numerous benefits for the environment. Two of the four “key features” in today’s press release detail how the drives save power, have a better CO2 lifecycle, et cetera. Seriously: I’m sure these drives are great for the environment, but listing RoHS compliance as a key feature is really pushing it. They are required to comply with the RoHS directive if Toshiba wants to sell even a single drive in Europe. The technical details are far more interesting:
Improvements to the magnetic recording head and disk’s magnetic layer gives the MBF2600RC an areal density of 595Mbit/mm2 (384Gbpsi), highest areal density for 2.5-inch enterprise drives, and realizes 600GB capacity, the largest capacity yet available in the market including 3.5-inch drives. Combined with a rotation rate of over 10,000RPM, the line-up will meet the enterprise market’s exacting standards with 2.5-inch form factor drives. Furthermore, the internal transfer rate in the MBF2600RC family is boosted by 13%, from 191.5MB/s to 216MB/s, compared with the previous generation MBD2300RC, due to improved linear recording density, and overall performance increased by realizing high speed seek time. The new drives also offer an optional drive-based encryption design that secures data when end of lease, during disposal and recycling. The range of storage capacities meets customer needs across a wide range of mission-critical IT equipment, from servers to large capacity storage systems.
Volume shipments will start in April 2010; pricing for the new drives has not been announced yet.
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