Seagate launches 2.5-inch storage drive

Seagate Technology LLC launched a family of SFF (small form factor) 2.5-inch enterprise disc drives on Monday, and said Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) is likely to be first to market with products using the new Savvio drives.

The higher IOPS (input/output per second) rate of the smaller drive means that a 2U rack storage array using the new Savvio 2.5-inch drives will outperform a standard 3U rack by almost 140 percent, on an IOPS-per-U basis, while giving similar storage capacity, Shawn Hook, Seagate senior marketing manager, said Monday.

HP said in December that it would add enterprise-class 2.5-inch drives to its ProLiant range of servers. It had been testing products from Fujitsu Computer Products of America Inc., it said, and Hook said Seagate is also supplying trial versions of the Savvio to HP.

"If I was betting, I'd say HP will be one of the earliest to market with the form factor," Hook said. "They've been one of the innovators in the area," he said.

Target markets for Seagate will include high-performance storage arrays, 1U servers, blade servers and space-constrained environments such as copiers and medical imaging, Hook said.

The 2.5-inch disc drive uses 40 percent less power than a 3.5-inch drive, Hook said, and is available in 36.7GB and 73.4GB capacities. It uses a 10,000 RPM (revolutions per minute) motor and a shortened, stiffer actuator arm to improve I/O performance, Seagate said.

Interfaces will include Ultra320 SCSI (small computer systems interface) and Fibre Channel, with serial attached SCSI (SAS) available later, Hook said.

A full evaluation specification model, with Ultra320 SCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces, will be available in June, while volume production is expected in June as well. Seagate's principal manufacturing customers already have engineering specification versions for trial. A SAS SCSI interface version will be in production by September, he said.

The name "Savvio" is based on the word "savvy" with IO for input/output, Hook said.