ExcelStor Technology Ltd. announced two new power-efficient and high-reliability 3.5” hard disk drives: the single-platter Jupiter series J9250, designed for desktop computers and the Venus series V9250 designed for consumer electronics applications. Emphasizing environment protection and power conservation, the Jupiter series J9250 and Venus series V9250 can achieve a 35% power saving over ExcelStor’s previous generation hard drives. Compared to other hard drives of the same class, which consumes more than 9 watts during idle, the J9250 and V9250 is ahead in terms of power efficiency. The J9250 (SATA) only consumes 3.6 watts during idle and 0.8 watts during standby. This helps reduce overall PC system power requirements, which allow PC manufacturers to achieve ENERGY STAR ratings. Less power consumption also translates to less stress to our environment.


 
Built using the industry’s most reliable Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) Technology, ExcelStor’s Jupiter and Venus series hard drives will guarantee a reliable operation during its lifespan. These hard drive series also utilize the patented technology - Ramp Load/Unload to provide excellent shock rating - 350G and lower failure rate. Thermal Flyheight Control technology is incorporated to keep the fly height of the Read/Write heads constant and therefore reduce the Read/Write error rate. The Jupiter and Venus series are designed to work with Parallel ATA-133 or SATA II 3.0Gbps interface.
 
The Jupiter series’ single platter design provides increased product reliability and the higher areal density translates to a higher media transfer rate. The Jupiter series continues ExcelStor’s commitment in providing high quality, high performance and cost-effective data storage products for desktop computing.
 
With the rapid advancement in the Consumer Electronics product space, high-capacity hard drive will continue to play an important role as the primary storage device of PVR, set-top boxes. Based on this trend, ExcelStor’s Venus series V9250 has been designed to support the ATA-7 streaming command set and time-limited error recovery to ensure smooth recording and playback of streaming media. The inherent low power consumption during idle operation also helps keep the surrounding temperature low, thereby potentially eliminating the need for a cooling fan.
 
Mr. Tony Hsu, ExcelStor Sales and Marketing VP, said: “Compared to multi-platter designs, single-platter has a higher reliability because of fewer mechanical parts. The 250GB hard disk drive can store up to 250 high-clarity full-length movies. The single-platter design Jupiter and Venus series 250GB is no doubt the best choice for balanced performance, reliability, and power efficiency.”
 
Both the Jupiter series J9250 and Venus series V9250 began shipping in the middle of March.
 
They are distributed exclusively in Europe by Bell Microproducts, at a reseller price of 34,90 euros.
 
Key specifications:

• Model：Jupiter J9250 / J9160 and Venus V9250 / V9160
• Capacity: 250 / 160 GB (GB=1 billion bytes)
• Media transfer rate (Max): 1138 Mb/s
• Average seek time (Read): 14.0 msec
• Rotational speed: 7200 RPM, 4.17ms average latency
• Interface：ATA-133 / SATA II 3.0 Gb/s
• Cache：8MB
• Areal density Max：185 Gbits/in2
• Data disk: 1 platter
• Data heads: 2
• Non-operating shock rating (half sine wave, 2 msec): 350G
• Idle power dissipation PATA: 3.3 W
• Idle power dissipation SATA: 3.6 W
• Idle acoustics (Bels, typical): 2.5
• Operating temperature：0-60 degrees C
• Fluid Dynamic Bearing Motor（FDB）
• RoHS-compliant