Hitachi Enterprise Hard Drive Establishes New Performance and Capacity Standards

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Assuming the reins as the enterprise hard drive performance and capacity leader, Hitachi today announced the Ultrastar™ 15K450. The new drive uses perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology to deliver 450GB of storage, currently the highest available capacity in 15,000 RPM enterprise-class hard drives. The Ultrastar 15K450 is an ideal solution for mission-critical server and storage applications, such as online transaction processing, intensive database queries and other multi-user applications.

“Coupled with our intensive testing and quality assurance process, the Ultrastar 15K450 offers the highest available performance and reliability for mission-critical computing environments.”

The Ultrastar 15K450 is a performance leader, with Hitachi tests indicating a 30 percent improvement in sequential throughput over its predecessor. The drive features average seek times as low as 3.3 milliseconds and the fast rotational speeds reduce average latency time to 2 milliseconds, enabling customers to access data more quickly and efficiently. The new drive will ship with either 3Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) or 4Gb/s Fibre Channel (FC) interfaces.

The Ultrastar 15K450, which is built on a mature design platform to ensure greater reliability and reduced qualification times, offers a host of industrial-strength technology for proven reliability in mission-critical, server-class environments. Technologies such as fluid dynamic bearing motors deliver a low acoustic rating and improved data integrity, and Rotational Vibration Safeguard (RVS) technology anticipates disturbances that can occur in multi-drive configurations and counteracts them. In addition, the Ultrastar 15K450 uses Hitachi’s patented head load/unload ramp to minimize integration induced drive damage.“With the higher capacity and performance of the Ultrastar 15K450, enterprises are able to address their throughput requirements using fewer drives, which reduces three things; the cost of ownership, the datacenter’s footprint and overall power requirements,” said Dean Amini, director, Enterprise Market & Strategy, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “Coupled with our intensive testing and quality assurance process, the Ultrastar 15K450 offers the highest available performance and reliability for mission-critical computing environments.”

The Ultrastar 15K450 will be shipping this quarter to customers worldwide.

Technical Specifications:

Ultrastar 15K450

450GB (GB = 1 billion bytes, accessible capacity may be less)

183 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density

4 platters, 8 recording heads

2090 Mb/s max. media data rate

3.6 ms average seek time (with command overhead)

15,000 RPM, 2.0 ms average latency

3Gb/s SAS, 4Gb/s FCAL interfaces

16 MB data buffer

25.8 mm in height (max)

750 in weight (max)

250 G/2 ms pulse non-operating shock

SAS: 13.3 watt idle power

FCAL: 13.4 watt idle power

3.7 Bels typical idle acoustics

5 to 55 degrees C operating temperature

About Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies develops advanced hard disk drives to store and preserve the world’s valued data. Founded by the pioneers of hard drives, Hitachi GST enables users to fully engage in the digital lifestyle by providing high-value, high-capacity storage in formats suitable for the office, in the home or on the road. With vertically integrated research, design and manufacturing capabilities, Hitachi GST delivers leadership technology and quality to its global customer base.

With approximately 33,000 employees worldwide, Hitachi GST offers a comprehensive range of hard drive products for desktop computers, high-performance storage systems and servers, notebooks and consumer devices. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.hitachigst.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE:HIT) (TOKYO:6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 384,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2006 (ended March 31, 2007) consolidated revenues totaled 10,247 billion yen ($86.8 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

One GB is equal to one billion bytes and one TB is equal to 1,000 GB when referring to hard drive capacity. Accessible capacity may be less.

Ultrastar is a trademark of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Hitachi trademarks are authorized for use in countries and jurisdictions in which Hitachi has the right to use, market and advertise the brands. Contact Hitachi for more information. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies shall not be liable to third parties for unauthorized use of its trademarks.