De harddisk guru's van Storage Review hebben wat info bijeen geschraapt over de nieuwe Seagate Cheetah X15 harddisk. Dit 18GB model valt op vanwege zijn 15,000 rotaties per minuut, 3.9 millisecond access time, een maximale transfer rate van 42.5 MB/sec en een buffer van maximaal 16MB. Deze krachtpatser zal in het derde kwartaal leverbaar worden voor onder de $1000 dollar.
The advantages, however, are numerous. As mentioned above, smaller platters allow for faster seek times. The Cheetah X15’s seek time is spec’ed at an incredible 3.9 milliseconds. With its reduced rotational latency (and a small amount of constant overhead), the X15 can access data 26% faster than its 10k rpm equivalent, the Cheetah 18XL. Another advantage is heat and noise. Though the X15 spins its platters faster than ever, smaller platters, of course, possess less mass. This translates to less powerful spindle motors and thus less required power, allowing the drive to keep a noise and heat profile along the lines of its 3rd generation 10k rpm predecessor. Though the circumference of such smaller platters is significantly smaller, a high gigabits/square inch spec combined with the 15k rpm operation allows the X15 to pump over 42 megs a second off of its outermost zone. Seagate is positioning the unit for applications requiring fast random accesses; even so, this figure is impressive nonetheless. Like its current 4th generation relatives, the Cheetah X15 features a 4 meg buffer in its standard incarnation, with 16 meg A/V-ready versions to also be available.
Voor meer info kun je ook de press release eens nalezen.