Fujitsu Releases New Line of Enterprise Hard Disks

Fujitsu to Release New Line of Enterprise Hard Disk Drives

- 2.5" drives feature standard support for 6Gb/s SAS and industry-leading power efficiency -


Tokyo, November 17, 2008 - Fujitsu Limited today announced the development of two new series in its line of 2.5" enterprise hard disk drives (HDDs), the 10,025-rpm MBD2 RC series and 15,000-rpm MBE2 RC series, both of which provide standard support for the 6Gb/s SAS(1) interface. The MBD2 RC series will be released in the first quarter of 2009 calendar year, and the MBE2 RC series will be available in the second quarter.

Compared to current 2.5" models(2), the new series improve performance by 60% in terms of internal transfer speeds. They are also more environmentally friendly, with halogen-free(3) design - a first for Fujitsu's enterprise HDDs - and industry-leading power efficiency. Moreover, the series boast perpendicular magnetic recording(4), which enables increased recording density and allows the MBD2 series to have capacities up to 300 GB(5), noteworthy for 2.5" HDDs. The new models are well-suited to a range of applications, from servers to high-capacity storage systems.



While the enterprise storage market continues to demand high performance and high reliability, there has been a growing push for environmentally friendly design that minimizes heat generation, power consumption, and space requirements. As an alternative to 3.5" HDDs, which have been widely used in the enterprise market, there has been increasing interest in 2.5" models that can deliver superior performance in a smaller footprint.

Fujitsu is responding to these needs with its newest releases, the 10,025-rpm MBD2 RC series and 15,000-rpm MBE2 RC series, both of which provide standard support for the 6Gb/s SAS interface.

Both series use perpendicular magnetic recording, which enables capacities up to 300 GB in the MBD2 RC series and up to 147 GB in the MBE2 RC series. The new models thus reduce space requirements while providing higher storage capacities.

In addition, the new series improve maximum internal transfer rates by 60% over current 2.5" models. By supporting the latest SAS-2 interface specification, they also offer faster data-transfer rates (600 MB/s) between the drive and the host.

Environmental benefits include the industry-leading low power consumption of 3.4 W at idle for the MBD2 RC series and 4.1 W for the MBE2 RC series. This represents an improvement of as much as 28% over current 2.5" models, and as much as 74% over current 3.5" models, contributing to lower energy costs for customers.

In addition to complying with the EU's RoHS Directive(6), the new models are also Fujitsu's first enterprise HDDs to comply with halogen-free initiatives.

The new offerings are the most recent products of Fujitsu's Green Policy Innovation program, which was unveiled in December 2007 to promote energy-efficient products and services as a way to help customers lower their ecological footprint.

Capitalizing on the vast experience and reputation for reliability that Fujitsu has accumulated through over 40 years of HDD development, these products deliver the superior quality and environmentally friendly features that customers have come to expect from Fujitsu.



Notes
1 6Gb/s SAS: SAS (Serial-attached SCSI) is a new serial interface for SCSI. Compared to the traditional parallel interface, this can achieve higher data-transfer rates. Systems comprising SAS HDDs can be connected to SATA HDDs. SAS-2 is the latest interface standard. 6Gb/s SAS is based on the SAS-2 specification, and extends the data-transfer rates from previous 3Gb/s SAS to 6Gb/s (600MB/s).

2 Current 2.5" Models: Three series from Fujitsu announced May 30, 2007: MBA 3, MBB2 and MBC2.

3 Halogen-free: Levels of chlorine (CL) and bromine (Br) or a compound of the elements meet the standards of IEC61249-2-21:2003, as stated below:
Chlorine: less than 900ppm
Bromine: less than 900ppm
Chlorine + bromine: less than 1500ppm

4 Perpendicular Magnetic Recording: This is a recording method that permits greater storage capacity than the traditional longitudinal magnetic recording method. The poles of the magnetic elements are aligned perpendicularly to the surface of the recording media.

5 300 GB: 1 GB is equivalent to 1 billion bytes. Usable storage capacity is actually less than this figure. Actual storage capacity may vary depending on the environment and formatting of the customer's system.

6 RoHS Directive: Short for "Restriction on the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment." A directive issued by the European Union on February 13, 2003 that has set legal regulations for hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment to minimize risk to the environment and people in member countries. Based on the directive, as of July 1, 2006, the amount of lead, hexavalent chromium, mercury, cadmium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) is regulated in electrical and electronic equipment intended for Europe.

About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of IT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 160,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 5.3 trillion yen (US$53 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008. For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com/

Last updated: Apr 7, 2020 at 12:58 pm CDT