Setting a new standard for hard drive speeds, LaCie has announced that they are shipping a new 18GB 15,000RPM drive. The new drive is available in both internal and external versions, and features a SCSI interface. According to LaCie:
FeaturIng an amazing rotational speed of 15,000 rpm, LaCieis new 3.5-inch18GB hard drive achieves record-breaking transfer rates of up to 75 MB/sec in RAID and 47 MB/sec for a single drive, making it the fastest hard drive on the market. Widely recognized for enhancing the value and performance of its products, LaCie offers the drive with the new Ultra 160/LVD SCSI interface for transfers to and from the controllers at 160 MB/sec -- the highest I/O performance available.
The new Ultra 160 SCSI interface combines with the high-performance 18GB drive to provide immediate benefits for throughput-intensive applications where speed is the primary goal. Designed for demanding applications such as high-end servers and databases, as well as digital audio/video editing and desktop publishing, the driveis exceptionally fast transfer rates and 3.9 millisecond seek time translate into improved productivity.
For even higher performance, LaCieis new U160 hard drive can be deployed in a RAID 0 or RAID 5 system which allows video and multimedia users to create simple arrays that increase the throughput by up to 80 percent. The higher speed will also benefit U160 hard drive-equipped servers handling transaction-intensive processing tasks.
Recognizing that most users still rely on the SCSI interface, LaCie conducted extensive testing to ensure interoperability with earlier SCSI standards. Ultra160 SCSI is fully compatible with Ultra2 SCSI (wide) and previous generations of wide SCSI, providing a smooth transition while preserving investments for most existing equipment. LaCieis U160 drives can be connected to any wide SCSI card (transfer rate will then be limited to cardis performance), and Ultra 160 host controllers can support Ultra2 SCSI devices.
The LaCie 18GB 15,000RPM drive is available in an external version for US$799, and an internal version for US$699. You can find more information at the LaCie web site.