[Brian]

Seagate has announced that they have shipped one million Momentus XT hybrid hard drives. The 2.5" hybrids offer 7200RPM platters with 500GB of capacity, boosted by 4GB of solid state SLC NAND used for caching frequent activities, making the XT more responsive than traditional hard drives.

Full Story

[continuum]

Woohoo... hopefully they'll fix the firmware issues a ton of OS X users have been reporting, and maybe enhance the benefits of the tiny bit of flash memory onboard?

[Brian]

I was thinking about starting a thread just to create a wish list for Momentus XT 2 features...I think a doubling of NAND is thing #1.

[Vampire]

Brian, on 10 August 2011 - 07:55 AM, said:

I was thinking about starting a thread just to create a wish list for Momentus XT 2 features...I think a doubling of NAND is thing #1.

Very good idea. Make such a thread.
Most NAND you will see in the next momentus XT will be 16 GB - SLC or MLC.

There is a higher probability the next momentus XT will have 4 x 3 = 12 GB - SLC rather then 8 GB.

They are also considering two models for Momentus XT 2:

1) A 7,200 rpm with 12-16GB NAND.
2) A 10,000 rpm with 16 GB of NAND.

They will have no competition when Momentus XT 2 will come. Remember that Western Digital brought Hitachi GST which is a very large company (acquisition) if we compare it to Samsung drive division. So Seagate needs to stay ahead of competition.

http://www.theregist..._fifth_gen_pmr/
http://www.theregist..._pmr/page2.html

This post has been edited by Vampire: 10 August 2011 - 03:56 PM

[danwat1234]

10K probably won't happen because of power consumption and that I've never seen a 10K spindle motor run on 5 volts instead of 12 volts. I'd wish it would happen though.

Hopefully the NAND flash will cache writes not just reads!

[danwat1234]

Wait Vampire, do u know something from the inside!? Maybe the 10K platter idea is targeted for the desktop not laptop systems

[Brian]

That's what I was thinking for 10K...must be a desktop product if at all. I don't see it happening, but it would be very interesting.

I also don't think we'll see multiple NAND chips. That PCB is tight.

http://www.storagere...entus_xt_review

[Vampire]

The 10,000 rpm is for desktop & server market. Both versions will stay at 2.5-inch. NO multiple NAND chips. I was pointing out that the flash memory might triple.
The NAND flash in Momentus XT 2 will not cache writes but it will work in a different way from the current one. On a more concrete level it will have a new algorithm - that will work better on server related tasks.

Also : "Seagate will use its own heads in these new disk drive products and not TDK ones."

The NAND will come from Samsung and will be: 27-nm NAND flash.

Here you find more information and pictures regarding the Samsung Flash:

http://acrossemi.com...emid=76&lang=en

Seagate is thinking not to overshadow and overlap their products too much, because in theory the new Momentus XT 2 (7,200 version) can replace the 2.5-inch 7200-RPM Drive - Constellation and the 10,000 rpm version can replace the 2.5-inch 10K-RPM Drive - Savvio

On the left side : http://www.seagate.c...ucts/enterprise

There is a chance Momentus 2 will be split in a laptop/desktop 7,200 rpm version and a 10,000 version for the high-end desktop/server market.

If Momentus XT 2 will sell very good then they will go on this route and make all of their hard drives hybrid for now.

They are not ready yet to show the other technology they are working on. Yes it's a technology that will rival with SSD. And yes Western Digital doesn't have it.

Remember Seagate bought only the hard drive business from Samsung and made some deals regarding accessibility for SSD technology. ("After the deal, Samsung will supply NAND-type flash chips to Seagate, while it will source Seagate HDD for PCs, laptops and consumer electronics products. Seagate will also get access to Samsung's customer base across China and Southeast Asia.")

Seagate is working on a new technology for years. And it's light years away from competition. That's why it is not interested in SSD at all.

This post has been edited by Vampire: 11 August 2011 - 05:57 PM

[danwat1234]

Vampire, on 11 August 2011 - 05:17 PM, said:

The 10,000 rpm is for desktop & server market. Both versions will stay at 2.5-inch. NO multiple NAND chips. I was pointing out that the flash memory might triple.
The NAND flash in Momentus XT 2 will not cache writes but it will work in a different way from the current one. On a more concrete level it will have a new algorithm - that will work better on server related tasks.

Also : "Seagate will use its own heads in these new disk drive products and not TDK ones."

The NAND will come from Samsung and will be: 27-nm NAND flash.

Here you find more information and pictures regarding the Samsung Flash:

http://acrossemi.com...emid=76&lang=en

Seagate is thinking not to overshadow and overlap their products too much, because in theory the new Momentus XT 2 (7,200 version) can replace the 2.5-inch 7200-RPM Drive - Constellation and the 10,000 rpm version can replace the 2.5-inch 10K-RPM Drive - Savvio

On the left side : http://www.seagate.c...ucts/enterprise

There is a chance Momentus 2 will be split in a laptop/desktop 7,200 rpm version and a 10,000 version for the high-end desktop/server market.

If Momentus XT 2 will sell very good then they will go on this route and make all of their hard drives hybrid for now.

They are not ready yet to show the other technology they are working on. Yes it's a technology that will rival with SSD. And yes Western Digital doesn't have it.

Remember Seagate bought only the hard drive business from Samsung and made some deals regarding accessibility for SSD technology. ("After the deal, Samsung will supply NAND-type flash chips to Seagate, while it will source Seagate HDD for PCs, laptops and consumer electronics products. Seagate will also get access to Samsung's customer base across China and Southeast Asia.")

Seagate is working on a new technology for years. And it's light years away from competition. That's why it is not interested in SSD at all.

They might have a winner too if they make a 10K RPM version for laptops! A lot of people would buy it as long as power consumption wasn't absolutely crazy, like say under 3 watts idle power consumption, 5 watts max when loaded.

[Vampire]

We will wait and see what happens. As i said they are working on a technology that will replace magnetic disks all together.

This post has been edited by Vampire: 12 August 2011 - 08:35 AM