Western Digital launches 4TB RE Series in both SATA and SAS flavors

Subject: Storage | September 27, 2012 - 08:00 AM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: western digital, wdc, WD, RE, RAID Edition, raid

Today Western Digital announced a new line of RAID Edition (RE) drives. While the WD RE series is not new, preceded by the RE4-GP and faster spinning RE4, it was certainly overdue for an update.

This update brings the maximum capacity to 4TB and includes a SAS line as well. SATA connectivity will be 6Gb/sec, while SAS will employ dual port full duplex connectivity for the higher end enterprise sector. These drives appear to use the same platter capacity scheme employed by the recent WD Red Series, though the PR blast states 800GB/platter. I'm awaiting clarification on that point, as the math doesn't seem to work out evenly. Pricing is at a premium for these models, as they are intended for enterprise use. Mid to high $400's for SATA and SAS. Pricey, but still 1/10th of current good deals on SSDs.

Press blast (and detailed pricing) after the break!

Samsung smashes the 830 series with the 840 Pro

Subject: Storage | September 25, 2012 - 05:02 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Samsung, 840 Pro 512GB, 840, mdx, pro, ssd

Allyn wasn't the only one blown away by the performance and efficiency increase of the new Samsung 840 Pro 512GB SSD, anyone who had a chance to review this drive saw incredible performance.  It is not yet available for purchase but you can expect to see the 256G at $270 and this 512GB at around $600 when they do become available.  Inside the 3-core eight channel MDX controller is paired with eight 64GB modules of Samsung’s new 21nm MLC DDR-2 toggle mode NAND, which give this drive its incredible speed.  SSD Reviews came to the same conclusion that Al did, we need a new interface as SATA 6Gb/s is already being saturated by high end SSDs.

"Our report on the Samsung 840 Pro SSD begins post take off from Pearson Int’l Airport in Toronto and on route to Seoul, South Korea. Having had this SSD in our hands for some time, even the enormity of the Samsung 840 family release celebration cannot overshadow the performance of what just might be the hottest solid state drive to hit the streets to date. How does just under an extra hour laptop life and 100,000 IOPS grab you to start?"

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

• Samsung 840 Pro SSD @ Techspot
• Samsung SSD 840 Pro (256GB) @ AnandTech
• Samsung SSD 840 Pro 256GB review: the fastest SSD currently around @ Hardware.info
• Strontium HAWK Series 120GB SSD @ Tweaktown
• ADATA SX900 128GB SSD Review @ OCC
• Plextor M5 Pro 256GB review: record-setting performance @ Hardware.info
• ADATA XPG SX300 256GB mSATA SSD @ SSD Review
• Crucial m4 mSATA 256GB SSD @ Techspot
• Corsair Force GS 240 GB Solid State Drive @ X-bit Labs
• SanDisk Extreme 240GB SSD SDSSDX-240G-G25 Review @ PCSTATS
• Zalman F1 240GB SSD @ Tweaktown
• SSD Cache Performance - is it as good as a dedicated SSD? @ hardCOREware
• NZXT Aperture M Card Reader Review @ eTeknix
• SysAdmin Corner: Demystifying RAID @ Techgage
• LSI MegaRAID 9265-8i & Areca ARC-1882i SATA+SAS 6Gb/s Controller Cards @ NikKTech
• LSI Nytro MegaRAID NMR 8120-4i Application Acceleration Card @ SSD Review
• OWC Mercury AccelsiorM PCIe mSATA Controller @ SSD Review
• Vantec NexStar HX4 Quad 3.5-inch Enclosure Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• Synology RackStation RS3412RPxs @ Kitguru
• Thecus N5550 NAS Network Storage Server @ Benchmark Reviews

The media might last a million years, what about the reader?

Subject: General Tech, Storage | September 25, 2012 - 01:19 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: hitachi, foresight

Hitachi has created a sliver of quartz glass 2cm square and 2mm thick with the storage density of a CD, 40MB/in² which they claim will remain viable for millions of years.  Even radiation, water, most chemicals and heat above 1000C will not damage the data stored on this chip and in theory dropping it shouldn't hurt it too much either.  Long term storage is a real problem, in some cases paper documents have a better chance of surviving long term in a readable state than do optical or magnetic media.  That doesn't even bring readers into the loop, there are many obsolete formats which cannot be read by current readers and finding an old working Zip drive is not an easy task.  Hitachi told The Register that they foresee no problems increasing storage density which is good considering the size of crystal you would need for large sized storage.  As long as someone can read the binary etched into the glass they would recognize that there was data stored there, on the other hand what is the likelihood they would be running a compatible file system.  At least the data will still be there which is more than you can say for the vast majority of storage media used today.

"Company researchers displayed the storage unit, consisting of a sliver of glass 2cm square and 2mm thick, which can hold 40MB of data per square inch, about the same as a standard CD. The data is written in binary format by lasering dots on the glass in four layers, but the researchers say adding more layers to increase storage density isn't a problem."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Nvidia to add cloud and mobile computing segments at GTC 2013 @ DigiTimes
• What does Steve Wozniak do at Fusion-IO? @ The Register
• Intel Linux OpenGL Driver Remains Slower Than Windows @ Phoronix
• Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2013 Review @ TechReviewSource
• BlackBerry 10 carrier testing starts in October, OS remains on schedule @ Engadget
• Here’s the Chip Apple Is Using to Stop You from Buying Cheap Cables @ Gizmodo
• AssistiveTouch Bug In Apple's New iOS 6 @ TechARP
• OKI MC562dn review: small office LED all-in-one @ Hardware.info

Samsung Launches New 840, 840 Pro SSD Series at Global SSD Summit

Subject: Storage | September 23, 2012 - 10:00 PM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: ssd, Samsung, pro, mdx, 840

Good morning from Seoul, Korea!

I'm here at the Samsung Global SSD Summit, where Samsung has officially launched their 840 Series of SSDs. This new controller features many advancements which enable it to climb past 100,000 IOPS in random reads (!!!). Samsung also claims peaks of 90,000 IOPS in random writes. These are seriously high numbers for any SATA SSD, and we will be publishing our full review of the 840 Pro once the NDA lifts later this evening (tomorrow morning for everyone back in the states).

Unfortunately there is nothing more I can disclose at this time, but stay tuned for more info! While all of you are sleeping tonight, I will be attending several briefings covering the 840, and those juicy tidbits will all be filtered into our review, so don't miss this one!

Press Blast after the break:

HGST Working With Helium To Inflate Hard Drive Capacities

Subject: Storage | September 19, 2012 - 11:27 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: western digital, WD, patter density, hitachi, hgst, helium, Hard Drive, 6tb

Western Digital-owned Hitachi Global Storage (HGST) recently announced that it is pursuing the mass production of helium-filled hard drives. The culmination of six-plus years of research and development, Hitachi’s engineers have come up with a workable solution to craft a sealed enclosure to contain the helium and internal drive hardware over the long term and in a way that can be mass produced. While the company is not ready to talk specifics or announce individual products, HGST (Western Digital) is going on record in stating that its helium-filled “hard drive platform” will offer up performance, power efficiency, and capacity improvements in a 3.5" form factor (with up to seven platters) sometime in 2013.

Don't try this at home folks, it won't actually work :).

The current crop of hard drives have small holes on the top to allow air pressure equalization, as the drives are not a fully-sealed design (and is why dunking them in oil is a bad idea). The proposed helium-filled hard drives would change that design, by being fully sealed from the outside environment after being filled with the noble gas. Steve Campbell, CTO at HGST stated the following in the company's press release:

 “The benefits of operating a HDD with helium fill have been known for a long time. The breakthrough is in the product and process design, which seals the helium inside the HDD enclosure cost effectively in high-volume manufacturing,”

But why exactly is helium better for hard drives? In short, the gas is one-seventh (1/7) as dense as the air around us. This reduction in density allows for the platters to spin faster, or at the same spindle speeds at today's drives while experiencing less resistance and turbulance from versus an air-filled hard drive. Thanks to the reduced drag force, Hitachi can pack the platters closer together, which means that it can place more platters into the 3.5" hard drive form factor than ever before – up to seven with the current design. Further, the motor does not have to work as hard to drive the platters which results in quieter operation and more power savings. HGST also claims that using helium allows for better thermal conductivity, and allows the helium-filled hard drives to run up to 4°C cooler than an equivalently-configured air-equalized drive. Granted, 4°C is not that much of an improvement when looking at a single drive (or even a few in a desktop system), but it can add up to some decent cooling savings when these drives are utilized in datacenters.

Hitachi Global Storage does not yet have any specific products to announce publicly, but the company did offer up a few performance numbers that certainly seem promising – an in line with the company's goal of reducing the "total cost of ownership," or TCO. In addition tot he temperature improvements, the company claims up to 23% power reduction versus air. And when HGST factors in its seven-platter design, they have managed to bring the Watts-per-Terabyte (W/TB) 45% versus current drives. Assuming the helium-aided hard drives use the same (or more) amount of platter area as the company's previous drives, Hitachi/Western Digital could offer up to 7TB hard drives when combined with the company's 1TB per platter areal density improvements.

It has the potential to get even better, however. Should the engineers be able to integrate Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) – similar to what Seagate is pursuing – helium hard drives could offer up approximately 85TB 3.5" drives thanks to the additional two platters. Previously, Seagate envisioned up to 60TB HAMR hard drives in the 3.5" form factor. Those numbers are fairly far off in the future (and theoretical), however. On the other hand, Seagate believes that 6TB HAMR hard drives are reasonably close to public consumption, and if a HAMR drive could also benefit from the extra platters, potential spindle speed improvements, and power savings of using helium, I think 8TB+ is not out of the question while using less power than a traditional air-equalized (not sealed) 6TB HAMR-equipped hard drive.

Extremetech does bring up an interestng point about pricing, though. Mainly that helium is much more expensive than simply using the air around us! And as it is used up, it will only get more expensive, which are likely costs that will be passed onto consumers. Fortunately, it should not be too much of a premium that customers would have to pay (over a traditional hard drive) because a 3.5" hard drive will need only a small amount of the helium gas to realize the benefits, according to PC Perspective's resident storage guru Allyn Malventano.

What do you think about the prospects of a heluim-filled hard drive? Will we see such devices within our lifetimes, and just how much will these things cost? I suppose we'll have to wait until next year to find out!

Hynix does Sandforce SSDs as well as LAMD

Subject: Storage | September 17, 2012 - 07:34 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Hynix, Strontium Hawk Series, ssd, SandForce SF-2281, synchronous NAND

Hynix jumped into the world of SSDs with the first model containing a LAMD controller, their Neutron series.  Obviously Hynix are not limiting themselves to that controller as the release of the new Strontium Hawk series demonstrates, with the well known SF-2281 controller making an appearance.  When the SSD Review began their testing they expected results in line with other SandForce based drives but soon found themselves very pleasantly surprised.  With compressed data, this drive surpassed other 120GB models and kept up with some 240GB models, a very impressive feat but not as impressive as the results they saw when checking out the incompressible data benchmarks.  It would seem that Hynix has found a way to beef up performance in a way no other SandForce drive has managed yet.  This review is well worth checking out.

"The production of a non-LAMD based SSD for Hynix is actually not that shocking as an exclusive contract between Corsair and LAMD was in place long before the Hynix purchase. The length of this contract is not known, however, it accounts for probably one of the smartest moves made by Corsair to date. The performance of their newly released LAMD controlled Neutron Series has taken the industry by storm and can be seen in our recent review of both the Neutron and Neutron GTX."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

• OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD @ Rbmods
• Corsair Neutron 240GB SSD Review - Link_A_Media Controller @ Legit Reviews
• Adata XPG SX300 128GB vs Crucial m4 256GB @ Hardware.info
• CoreRise Comay Venus 3S 120GB Fixed TRIM [SandForce 5.04] SATA3 SSD Review @ ModSynergy
• Zalman F1 120GB @ Tweaktown
• Corsair Neutron GTX 240 GB Review @ XSReviews
• Samsung 830 Series 256 GB SSD Review @ Hardware Secrets
• ADATA XPG SX900 Solid State Drive @ Benchmark Reviews
• WD My Book VelociRaptor Duo review: the way Thunderbolt was intended @ Hardware.info
• Thermaltake BlacX Duet HDD Docking Station Review @ eTeknix
• Pretec P240 USB 3.0 Multi Card Reader Review @ eTeknix
• Strontium 16GB AUTO USB Flash Drive @ Pro-Clockers
• SanDisk Extreme 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive @ PC STATS
• Bruce Lee MIMOBOT 8GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Review @ Legit Reviews