Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced it has shipped over one million drives using shingled magnetic recording (SMR). SMR is the next generation in storage technology and is critical for continued improvement in areal density (the amount of data that can be stored on a single disk) to support global growth in cloud and mobile usage. The SMR generation of storage technology is expected to power gains of up to 25 percent.
“With nearly 7 billion inhabitants on earth we are creating an astounding 2.7 Zettabytes of data a year and as such are rapidly approaching the physical limits of how much can be written on a single conventional hard disk drive,” said Mark Re, Seagate’s chief technology officer. “With SMR technology, Seagate is on track to improve areal density by up to 25 percent or 1.25TB per disk, delivering hard drives with the lowest cost per gigabyte and reaching capacities of 5TB and beyond.”
The last technology transition, perpendicular recording, improved areal density by arranging the bits in a perpendicular fashion, thereby enabling narrower data tracks and read/write heads. Due to physical limitations read/write heads cannot become smaller. The most reliable option to improve areal density is to change the way data is written to the drive.
Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today took the wraps off the new Seagate Ultra Mobile HDD designed exclusively for mobile devices. Integrated with the Seagate Mobile Enablement Kit which includes Seagate’s Dynamic Data Driver software technology, the new storage solution delivers up to 7x the storage capacity of a traditional 64GB tablet with the same power, performance and reliability of a flash device.

“Coupling an ultra-thin, high-capacity HDD with software designed to optimize integration into tablets at a value-add price has allowed us to deliver a truly ground-breaking solution, enabling our partners to reimagine the mobile device,” said Steve Luczo, president, CEO and chairman of Seagate. “By empowering our OEMs with this revolutionary new technology, we have invited the industry to re-think the mobile market making this offering a true game-changer in the world of storage.”
WD, a Western Digital company, today announced the availability of its My Passport Slim line of portable hard drives, the first thin drives to offer up to 2 TB capacity, a metal enclosure, and 256-bit hardware-based encryption. The included WD SmartWare Pro data protection software allows users to back up their data to their My Passport Slim and keep an extra copy in their Dropbox account for peace-of-mind. The software also lets users back up their Dropbox account to the My Passport Slim. These features make the My Passport Slim an ideal choice for protecting, storing, and enjoying digital content on the go.

Available in 1 TB and 2 TB capacities, the My Passport Slim measures a scant 4.33 x 3.14 x 0.48-inches, giving mobile consumers an easy and convenient way to transport their favorite music, movies, photos and documents. The My Passport Slim also incorporates super-fast USB 3.0 connectivity for quick transfer speeds of high resolution digital files.
mLogic announced today that it is now shipping its innovative mBack external hard drives to customers worldwide. mBack is the industry’s first zero-footprint hard drive designed specifically for the iMac and Apple Displays.

“mBack is the first external hard drive designed to mount directly to the stand of an iMac or Apple Display,” said Roger Mabon, CEO of mLogic. “Now you can add up to 2TB of additional storage capacity to your system without cluttering up your workspace. The patent pending mBack is a simple and elegant zero-footprint storage solution that integrates seamlessly with late 2009 to current iMacs and Apple Displays.”
WD, a Western Digital company and storage industry leader, today announced the expansion of its category-leading WD Red line of SATA hard drives specifically designed for home and small office NAS (network attached storage) systems with one- to five-drive bays. WD Red hard drives are now available in a 2.5-inch form factor offering 1 TB and 750 GB capacities and a new 3.5-inch 4 TB capacity. Powered by NASware 2.0 technology, WD Red is compatibility-tested with top NAS system manufacturers and optimized for performance and reduced power consumption.
“WD defined the NAS drive category by leading the development of hard drives specifically built for small NAS environments,” said Matt Rutledge, vice president of client storage for WD. ”The WD Red product line serves the unique environment of NAS and meets the growing demand for affordable, reliable, and compatible storage. Through dialogue with our NAS partners and customer advocacy for WD Red, we saw the need for additional capacity in the 3.5-inch form factor and delivered our new 4 TB offering. We also wanted to deliver a highly reliable and compatible 2.5-inch hard drive built specifically for small NAS. This small form factor enables our customers to use high capacity NAS hard drives with high performance, quiet operation and low power consumption in compact NAS enclosures. We also see an opportunity in smaller-footprint NAS systems, media players and other industrial applications. Our pride in our product and our vision is shared with our customers.”
Silicon Power, the world’s leading provider of memory storage solutions today presents the latest design and extra rugged USB 3.0 portable hard drive – Armor A30. Instead of building with rigid and rectangular edges, A30 incorporates an ergonomically streamline design, allowing users to hold and operate at ease. Topping up with its refreshing colors and ultra-speed transfer rate, the military-grade shockproof A30 suited perfectly for travelers, sport enthusiasts, and businessperson on the go.
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SP Armor A30 is comprised of a shock-resistant silica gel, building from the internal structure to the exterior, adding an extra shield to withstand crushes and shocks. In order to provide superior protection, A30 also incorporates an internal suspension system, without risking a chance of losing important data. Furthermore, Armor A30 has passed the test in compliance with stringent US military MIL-STD-810G (transit drop test), giving users a full range of protection when dealing with toughest conditions.
Toshiba Corporation today announced that it will expand its family of small form factor 2.5-inch HDDs with a new series that packs up to 500GB of data storage into a unit with a height of just 7mm. The new “MQ01ACF” series will start shipping from August 30.

The “MQ01ACF” series is Toshiba’s first 7,278rpm, 2.5-inch product with a 7mm height. The series offers two models: the “MQ01ACF050” with a recording capacity of 500GB and the 320GB “MQ01ACF032”. A maximum internal transfer rate of 1,850Mbit/s is realized by improvement to linear recording density and the 7,278rpm rotational speed. Implementation of the 6Gbit/s SATA interface also boosts data transfer rates over those of current models.
ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, has made another advance in ultra-slim external hard drives with the launch of the DashDrive Elite HE720 in 1 terabyte capacity. The HE720 offers high speed data transmission through a USB 3.0 interface, and has a thickness of only 8.9mm.
The chassis of the HE720 is made of highly reflective stainless steel and provides 9H grade scratch resistance, which prevents damage and marring even after long-term use. A gleaming LED indicator indicates power and data transfer status, accentuating the modern metallic lines of the drive body. The USB 3.0 interface offers transfer efficiency up to three times that of older USB 2.0 devices, but retains full backward compatibility with earlier versions.
Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced it is shipping the world’s fastest hard drive— the Seagate Enterprise Turbo SSHD. The industry’s first enterprise solid state hybrid drive (SSHD), the Enterprise Turbo SSHD combines the capacity of a hard drive with solid-state flash enabling high-speed performance for mission critical data.

Setting a new standard in mission critical performance, the Enterprise Turbo SSHD provides up to a 3X increase in random performance over existing 15K-RPM drives and is available with up to 600GB of capacity. By unifying the best of solid-state and magnetic technologies, Turbo improves tiered storage performance combining accelerated speed with hard disk drive (HDD) high-capacity.
Apricorn, a leading designer and manufacturer of secure encrypted USB drives debuted its Aegis Padlock Fortress, a secure drive designed specifically for the stringent requirements of the Government, Military and Healthcare.

The first USB 3.0 hardware encrypted, PIN authenticated drive to receive FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validation, the Padlock Fortress meets and exceeds 11 cryptographic security metrics, covering physical security, cryptographic key management and design integrity, making it one of the most secure USB 3.0 drives on the market.