WD VelociRaptor From 3.5- to 2.5-Inch Form Factor
About all other specs are similar: 10,000rpm, 300GB, SATA 3.0
This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on July 24, 2008 at 3:50 pmWD announced the WD VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM enterprise SATA hard drives in an enterprise-class 2.5-inch form factor for blade servers and 1U and 2U rack servers. The newest WD VelociRaptor hard drive is built for business-critical applications with enterprise-class mechanics and packs up to 300 GB of capacity into the enterprise small form factor bays, while consuming 35 percent less power than the previous-generation WD Raptor drive.
"WD is bringing to enterprise customers what PC enthusiasts already appreciate about the WD VelociRaptor: a combination of high performance and high capacity for hard drive storage," said John Rydning, IDC’s research director for hard disk drives. "WD’s new WD VelociRaptor, designed specifically for the enterprise in an energy efficient 2.5-inch form factor, gives system OEMs and end users a new storage option to consider to meet growing storage requirements."
WD VelociRaptor 2.5-inch hard drives are designed and manufactured to enterprise-class standards to provide high reliability in high duty cycle environments, resulting in the highest available reliability rating of any SATA drive at 1.4 million hours MTBF.
"In the server market, demand for high performance drives continues to shift from the 3.5-inch form factor to the enterprise 2.5-inch form factor," said Tom McDorman, vice president and general manager of WD’s Enterprise Storage Solutions business unit. "The new 2.5-inch WD VelociRaptor drive is the only drive available that can offer server customers the flexibility of integrating SATA technology while benefiting from server-class performance and reliability."
Features of the new WD VelociRaptor hard drives include:
- Speed — 10,000 RPM, SATA 3 Gb/s interface and 16 MB cache deliver enterprise-class performance.
- Reliability — WD VelociRaptor drives are designed and manufactured to business-critical, enterprise-class standards to provide high reliability in high duty cycle environments. The design results in the highest available reliability rating of any SATA drive at 1.4 million hours MTBF.
- Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF) technology — Optimizes performance when the drives are used in vibration-prone, multi-drive chassis.
- Cool operation — WD VelociRaptor drives consume 35 percent less power than the previous generation of WD Raptor drive.
- NoTouch ramp load technology — The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.
Availability
WD VelociRaptor 2.5-inch hard drives (model WD3000BLFS) are under evaluation with OEM customers and will be available through select commercial distributors by the end of July.
Comments
The first WD Raptor (10,000rpm) was launched in 2003, in a 3.5-inch form factor, beginning at 36GB, and then at 74GB, 150GB and 300GB capacities.
This year, the HDD maker announced its first VelociRaptor, this time a 2.5-inch mechanism, but 15mm - and not the standard 9.5mm - high, housed in what the company calls IcePack, a metallic mounting frame in a 3.5-inch form factor that allows to decrease the temperature of the unit.
The new VelociRaptor is the same unit, but without IcePack. If you compare the operating temperature of each of the two devices: it’s 32°F to 140°F for the first one, 41°F to 131°F for the most recent one. Conclusion: the new unit will probably rapidly completely replace the old one.
WD will probably offer a SAS version of this ‘enterprise’ disk drive in the future.
Up to now, all the 10,000rpm or 15,000rpm small form factor (SFF) HDDs used SAS or FC interfaces (Fujitsu, Hitachi GST, Seagate). The WD VelociRaptor is really the first 2.5-inch 10,000rpm SATA drive. But, for sure, not the last one.
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