Toshiba 16TB HDD Qualified for Microchip’s Adaptec HBAs and RAID Adapters

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation (TAEC) announced that Microchip Technology‘s compatibility testing of the 16TB¹ 3.5-inch² enterprise capacity HDD from the MG08 series has been completed on all Adaptec Smart Storage HBAs and RAID adapters.

As a result, companies using Adaptec Smart Storage adapters can also install Toshiba’s 16TB enterprise HDDs.

They are usually operated in large networks and connected to the host server system via HBAs or RAID adapters. In this respect, the interplay of HDD drives and HBA / RAID adapters is essential for the functionality and stability of enterprise and cloud storage systems.

The confirmed compatibility of the MG08 series refers to the SATA models MG08ACA16TE (512 byte block) and MG08ACA16TA (4k byte block), as well as to the products with SAS interface MG08SCA16TE (512) and MG08SCA16TA (4k). Tests were carried out on the Adaptec HBA 1100 series HBAs and the Adaptec SmartRAID-3100 series RAID adapters and the still widely used predecessor, the Adaptec Series 8 RAID adapters. Not only were the basic functionality and compatibility of the interfaces tested, but also hot-plug tests, power on tests, and reboot tests were performed. Long-term stability was also confirmed by an extended duration test which is conducted by Microchip. The MG08 HDDs have thus qualified for entry on Microchip’s compatibility list.

Shuji Takaoka, GM of storage products sales and marketing division, Toshiba electronic devices and storage, explains: “Based on the excellent long-term cooperation with Microchip, we were able to qualify the new HDD gen for compatibility with Microchip’s adapters shortly after the market launch. This is a very important contribution to the implementation of stable storage systems for the constantly growing amount of data.“

The previous series of enterprise capacity HDDs (MG04/MG05/MG06/MG07) were also tested and qualified in the same way as described above by Microchip in the past. This also applies to the enterprise performance drives of the AL12/AL13/AL14 and AL15 series.

¹ Definition of capacity: Toshiba defines 1MB as 1,000,000 bytes, 1GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes and 1TB as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. A computer OS, however, reports storage capacity using powers of 2 for the definition of 1GB = 230 = 1,073,741,824 bytes and therefore shows less storage capacity. Available storage capacity (including examples of various media files) will vary based on file size, formatting, settings, software and OS, such as Microsoft OS and/or pre-installed software applications, or media content. Actual formatted capacity may vary.

² 3.5-inch means the form factor of HDDs. They do not indicate drive’s physical size.