Seagate is taking the veil of secrecy off with its new hybrid drive, with OEM shipments of the Momentus XT starting today. Called as the fastest 2.5-inch laptop drive on the planet, this here device gets a 7200RPM hard drive- 250/320/500GB, with 4GB of SLC NAND flash memory and 32MB of cache, and the company’s Adaptive Memory technology allows it to store commonly used information on the latter for ultra-speedy access.
It can boot up to 100% faster than a conventional 5400RPM hard drive, and it make use of a standard 9.5mm-high form factor that the vast mainstream of laptops use. Seagate also affirms that the drive operates independently of the operating system and the motherboard chipset, but can’t claim until we eye the first real benchmarks. Rumours suggest that it’ll soon be an option in ASUS’ ROG J73Jh gaming laptop. In related news, the outfit also announced the world’s highest capacity 7200RPM drive at 750GB, with the Momentus 750GB boasting SATA 3Gbps support, an NCQ interface, 16MB of cache and silent acoustics. No price is mentioned, but you can bet a heavy premium will placed on something this capacious.
On Wednesday, May 26, Seagate and OEM customer ASUS will co-sponsor a live webcast unveiling not only the new Momentus XT solid state hybrid drive, but also featuring the new ASUS ROG G73JH system with two Momentus XT drives. Three lucky attendees of this webcast will win a new G73 system just for attending*. Special guest speakers will provide an in-depth look at how this drive will transform high-performance computing.
Today’s high-performance SSDs for mobile computing cost as much as 10 times more than hard disk drives of the same capacity, with the price of a 250GB SSD outstripping even the cost of many laptop PCs. As a result, most consumers and system builders are unwilling or unable to pay the high price for the greater speed and quiet operations of SSDs. Additionally, SSDs offer fewer capacity options than hard disk drives.
The Momentus XT drive is a best-of-both-worlds solution that combines a 7200RPM spin speed, 4GB of solid state memory and Seagate’s Adaptive Memory technology to deliver unprecedented hard drive performance. The unique Adaptive Memory technology works by identifying patterns in how often certain digital data is used, and then moving the most frequently used information to the embedded solid state memory for faster access – effectively tailoring hard drive performance to each user and their applications.
“For notebook PC users looking forward to faster PC performance without sacrificing storage capacity or affordability, now there’s an option,” according to John Rydning, IDC’s research director for hard disk drives. “Seagate’s new Momentus® XT drive is the first storage device for notebook PCs that raises the bar for affordable capacity and performance.”
“We see the Momentus XT drive as a game changer, a product heralding a new generation of hard drives that combine SSD and HDD capabilities so that laptop users don’t have to make trade-offs on speed, cost or capacity,” said Dave Mosley, Seagate executive vice president of Sales, Marketing and Product Line Management. “The feedback we’ve received from customers, industry experts and early reviews has been overwhelmingly positive, and Seagate will continue to drive innovation that provides more value and a better computing experience to consumers.”
Tags: benchmarks, hard disk drives, high performance computing, memory technology, mobile computing, momentus, motherboard chipset, nand flash memory, rog, sata, seagate, ssds
faster and faster every day..how far will it go.