Seagate Unveils Hefty, Fast Cheetah Drives

HANOVER, GERMANY -- Seagate Technology has announced two high-speed, high-capacity hard disk drives along with a new back-up tape autoloader called Viper 2000.

The faster and more expensive disk drive, the Cheetah X15-36LP, is the second generation of the Cheetah x15, which was the first drive capable of 15,000 rpm. That speed bested the previous limit of 10,000 rpm.

Both the Cheetah X15-36LP and other new disk drive, the Cheetah 36ES, come in 18GB and 36GB versions. Both drives will also be compatible with the Ultra320 interface, which will allow burst transfers of up to 320MB per second. These drives will also be compatible with the current Ultra160 interface, and Seagate expects them to be used with current host bus adapters until Ultra320 adapters become available.

The Cheetah X15-36LP is priced between $395 and $750, depending on the model. The Cheetah 36ES is priced between $335 and $550. Both hard disk drives will be available in the second quarter of this year.

Seagate unveiled the drives, aimed at the entry-level server and enterprise use, here the day before the CeBIT trade show starts. The company unveiled its first-generation Cheetah X15 drive at CeBIT last year.

IBM Competes in Speed

IBM now markets its own 15,000 rpm disk drive. The Ultrastar, introduced in February, comes in 18GB and 36GB versions.

"That is good, because it gives this market legitimacy," says Henry Fabian, senior director of Seagate's global disk product marketing division. "There is starting to be a demand for these high-capacity, high-speed types of disk drives," he adds.

"This bigger and faster disk drive is aimed at Internet service providers and Web developers, people who have a need to get to the data very quickly," Fabian says.

The 10,000 rpm Cheetah 36ES targets entry-level enterprise servers like department servers, Internet servers, and LAN (local area network) servers. The Cheetah X15-36LP is created for high-performance, data-intensive enterprise servers and workstations.

Tape Drive Also Debuts

Seagate is also releasing a back-up tape autoloader called Viper 2000. Aimed at the mid-range to enterprise-level server market, the autoloader holds up to 2 terabytes of compressed data and can transfer data at a speed of up to 1.92G bytes per minute. It uses an Ultrium-format Viper 200 tape drive that accepts cartridges capable of holding up to 200GB of data. The Ultrium products are base on Linear Tape Open technology.

Seagate representatives also noted the company's new freedom to focus on long-term investments that don't have to pay off instantly, as well as partnerships with e-business companies. Seagate went private at the end of last year.

"Now we are out of the rat race," Fabian says. "Now we don't have to be under the constant scrutiny of Wall Street anymore." Fabian is one of the new owners of Seagate. The company's stock was bought by the investment group Silver Lake Partners, which includes Seagate executives, for $2 billion last year.