Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Storage

    Seagate Reenters Mobile Disk Drive Market

    By
    Mark Hachman
    -
    June 16, 2003
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Just a month after announcing that the company would ship 2.5-inch drives for the enterprise market, Seagate Technologies said Monday that it would reenter the mobile hard drive market.

      Seagate, the worlds largest drive maker, is already shipping its “Momentus” line of 2.5-inch hard drives to notebook customers, according to Mark Walker, a product marketing manager for Seagate. Although no OEM has formally signed on to using the drives, the company is in qualification with Acer and Hewlett-Packard, among others, Seagate officials said.

      Although Seagates announcement to reenter the 2.5-inch disk drive market comes a month after the company announced its intention to develop a line of 2.5-inch drives for the enterprise market, Walker said the two decisions were made independently of one another. Seagate stopped producing its Marathon mobile drives in 1998.

      “We actually dont feel that theres any more perfect of a time to get into the notebook market than now,” Walker said.

      Seagates advantage, according to Walker, is its “independent” status. Fujitsu and Hitachi, among others, are “captive” drive makers, who also sell their products to other divisions within the company. Although Maxtor is also an independent supplier, the company does not currently sell 2.5-inch drives.

      The Momentus drives will be offered in both 20- and 40-Gbyte capacities, at 5,400-RPM speeds. The 2.4 watts both drives consume while seeking data put the Momentus in the same class as 4,200-RPM drives, Walker said. The drives consume just under a watt when idling, and 0.36W when on standby.

      However, the drives can be tailored further for performance; Seagate will offer a special version with 8 Mbytes of cache. Normally, the drives contain 2 Mbytes of cache.

      Seagates drives also hope to eliminate the small but worrying “click” when a notebooks drive drops into idle mode, At that time, the drives head moves off of the disk platter, in much the same way a phonograph needle moves back to its resting place. Clicking noises, such as those associated with the legendary “click of death” afflicting old Iomega Zip drives, have often warned of impending failures.

      “A lot of users associate something wrong with that clicking noise,” Walker said.

      The Momentus drives use a quiet load/unload feature, which eliminates the click. While objective acoustic power can be measured in decibels, the subjective “loudness” of a sound was generalized into the “sone”, measuring how a listener perceived the loudness of tones at different frequencies. Technically, one sone equals a 1-khz tone at 40 dB SPL (Sound Pressure Level). A typical clock might tick at 1.3 sones, Walker said; while a normal disk drive might produce a 1.7-sone tick. The Momentus drives produce a 1.0-sone tick, below the level of audibility, Walker said.

      The Momentus drives are shipping now to OEMs, Walker said. The company did not disclose the drives pricing.

      Mark Hachman
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×