Seagate Technology Inc. (NYSE:SEG) today announced the addition of the Cheetah X15 to its family of award-winning Cheetah disc drives. The Cheetah X15 is the world's first drive to operate at 15,000 Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) and delivers 3.9 msec average seek times - the fastest in the world. The Cheetah X15's performance is equivalent to a person reading the entire works of Shakespeare in less than .15 seconds. As the only drive on the market to achieve this performance breakthrough, the Cheetah X15 disc drive is the best solution available when both high-transaction performance and reliability are essential. Seagate enterprise-class disc drives, like the Cheetah family, serve as the backbone of the Internet. As the fastest drive in the world, the robust Cheetah X15 can deliver more transactions per second, bringing Internet users faster searches, quicker downloads and a more enjoyable on-line experience. The new Cheetah X15 will be available in the popular 18 Gigabyte capacity.
" For years the market has valued disc drives based on the cost per Megabyte" stated David Wickersham, senior vice president, Product Line Management at Seagate Technology. "The Cheetah X15 changes everything. The demands of data-intensive applications such as e-commerce, the Internet and data warehousing have changed the market requirements for storage from capacity to speed per transaction. The true value of server-class storage must be measured in transactions per second or I/Os per second. We have all experienced the messages on the Internet that indicate that we are waiting on the reply from the server. A portion of that wait is attributable to the transaction capabilities of the data storage being used. The Cheetah X15's transaction performance can improve that storage response time by up to 50%."
The Cheetah X15's target markets are all related to the drive's performance attributes. With 15,000 RPM, 3.9 msec average seek times, data rates of up to 48MB/sec, 4 and 16MB cache options, Ultra160 or 2Gbit Fibre Channel interfaces, and 3D Defense System, the Cheetah X15 is clearly the best choice for those running business-critical applications. E-business, transaction processing, data mining, data warehousing, professional video and graphics are all key applications for the Cheetah X15.
"With the increasing amounts of critical data being accessed and stored, the need to move data quickly and reliably is now more important than ever," said Rusty Smith, director, Storage Products Division, Compaq Computer Corporation. "The new Cheetah 15K RPM disk drives will provide Compaq customers with industry-leading performance that will seamlessly integrate with their Compaq server or storage solutions."
The Cheetah X15 operates with the same power consumption and cooling requirements as the 10K RPM Cheetah. This allows OEMs and system integrators to use this class of drive in existing platforms and applications without having compatibility issues or requiring infrastructure changes.
Seagate's exclusive 3D Defense System—Drive Defense, Data Defense, Diagnostic Defense—is the industry's first complete protection solution designed to provide data protection all the way from the Seagate manufacturing facility, through final system integration. This innovative combination decreases handling damage, protects valuable data, and provides an alert for potential problems.
World Class Reliability
Cheetah drives are the most recognized and awarded high-performance disc drives in the world. This is achieved through Seagate's commitment to its extensive research and development efforts, strict adherence to Six Sigma quality philosophy, and incorporation of the 3D Defense system, as well as focusing on fulfilling the needs and requirements of its customers.
3D Defense
Drive Defense includes Seagate's G-Force Protection system and SeaShell. G-Force protection is a system approach to designing major drive components—motor, heads, head-arm, clamp, and discs—to be less susceptible to shock events. Additionally, all Cheetah X15 drives will be shipped in the new SeaShell. SeaShell is a shock-ribbed, transparent enclosure that limits a drive's exposure to electro-static discharge (ESD) and also protects against external shocks and stress. Tested by major OEMs, SeaShell reduces the force of a 12-inch drop by a factor of 10 over standard ESD packaging.
Data Defense features ensure maximum data integrity, making it possible to avoid data loss while running system applications. Data Defense includes Seagate's exclusive Advanced Multidrive System (SAMS), Error Correction Code (ECC), Safe Sparing and End-to-End Data Path Protection.
Diagnostic Defense includes SeaTools, Web-Based Tools, and Drive Self Test utilities that analyze system events in order to assist the user to diagnose or predict potential malfunctions.
Samples of the Cheetah X15 18GB drive will be available for major OEMs in early second quarter, with volume production planned by early third quarter. Single-unit street pricing is expected to be less than $1,000.
With Seagate's Barracuda, Cheetah, and now Cheetah X15 products, Seagate provides customers with choices to obtain their best balance between performance and value. For more information about the Cheetah X15 as well as Seagate's entire family of enterprise storage products, visit http://www.seagate.com.
Seagate Technology, Inc. (NYSE:SEG) is a leading provider of technology and products enabling people to store, access, and manage information. The Company is committed to providing best-in-class products to help people get information when, where and how they want it. Seagate is the world's largest manufacturer of disc drives, magnetic discs and read-write heads, an innovator in tape drives, and a leading developer of Business Intelligence software. Seagate can be found around the globe and at http://www.seagate.com. For automated news, stock and financial information by phone, dial toll-free 877-SEG-NYSE. Outside the U.S. and Canada, dial 760-704-4368.
