Hitachi Cuts Power Use for Desktop Hard Drives
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is today delivering what the company describes as the most energy efficient desktop hard disk drive (HDD) - the Deskstar P7K500.
Hitachi GST has implemented a set of power-saving technologies to reduce the P7K500's active and idle power consumption by up to 40 percent over the previous generation. The new hard drive is designed for commercial and consumer PCs in capacities ranging from 250GB to 500GB.
Through a 40-percent power reduction, Hitachi GST has delivered an idle power utilization of just 3.6 watts on the 250GB capacity model and 4.8 watts on models with capacities of 320GB or greater. Similarly, the P7K500 has reduced its active power requirements to 6.4 watts and 8.2 watts for its one- and two-disk models, respectively.
"The development of 'green' computing products that comply with energy-rating programs, such as ENERGY STAR 4.0, is becoming an extremely important initiative for our customers," said Shinjiro Iwata, executive vice president, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "With the Deskstar P7K500 hard drive, we have merged our various power management innovations into one drive, achieving leading power specifications that make a positive contribution to system power consumption."
In addition, the P7K500 incorporates Hitachi GST's second-generation perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) heads and disks, enabling 250GB-per-platter areal density.
Hitachi GST achieved the Deskstar P7K500?s 40-percent power reduction through three design changes. Using the company's HiVERT technology, which was first introduced with the Hitachi Travelstar mobile products, the Deskstar P7K500 hard drive increases the use of switching regulators in place of linear regulators for more efficient voltage conversion in the electronics. The drive has also adopted the Travelstar system-on-chip design with a more power-efficient profile, which further reduces power consumption.
Finally, all of the Deskstar hard drives incorporate Hitachi GST's Advanced Power Management capabilities, which have been implemented for six product generations. These capabilities lower the power consumption of hard drives while in idle mode, which is most of the time. The Deskstar P7K500 also takes advantage of Hitachi GST?s patented load/unload technology to allow for additional power reductions:
- Unload idle - The heads are safely unloaded to the ramp and the servo is shut off; this mode delivers power savings of 11 percent better than idle mode.
- Low RPM idle - The heads are safely unloaded to the ramp, the servo is shut off and the spindle motor RPM is reduced; this setting achieves power savings of 44 percent better than idle mode.
The Deskstar P7K500 will be available in high volume later in 4Q 2007.
Through a 40-percent power reduction, Hitachi GST has delivered an idle power utilization of just 3.6 watts on the 250GB capacity model and 4.8 watts on models with capacities of 320GB or greater. Similarly, the P7K500 has reduced its active power requirements to 6.4 watts and 8.2 watts for its one- and two-disk models, respectively.
"The development of 'green' computing products that comply with energy-rating programs, such as ENERGY STAR 4.0, is becoming an extremely important initiative for our customers," said Shinjiro Iwata, executive vice president, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "With the Deskstar P7K500 hard drive, we have merged our various power management innovations into one drive, achieving leading power specifications that make a positive contribution to system power consumption."
In addition, the P7K500 incorporates Hitachi GST's second-generation perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) heads and disks, enabling 250GB-per-platter areal density.
Hitachi GST achieved the Deskstar P7K500?s 40-percent power reduction through three design changes. Using the company's HiVERT technology, which was first introduced with the Hitachi Travelstar mobile products, the Deskstar P7K500 hard drive increases the use of switching regulators in place of linear regulators for more efficient voltage conversion in the electronics. The drive has also adopted the Travelstar system-on-chip design with a more power-efficient profile, which further reduces power consumption.
Finally, all of the Deskstar hard drives incorporate Hitachi GST's Advanced Power Management capabilities, which have been implemented for six product generations. These capabilities lower the power consumption of hard drives while in idle mode, which is most of the time. The Deskstar P7K500 also takes advantage of Hitachi GST?s patented load/unload technology to allow for additional power reductions:
- Unload idle - The heads are safely unloaded to the ramp and the servo is shut off; this mode delivers power savings of 11 percent better than idle mode.
- Low RPM idle - The heads are safely unloaded to the ramp, the servo is shut off and the spindle motor RPM is reduced; this setting achieves power savings of 44 percent better than idle mode.
The Deskstar P7K500 will be available in high volume later in 4Q 2007.
