Seagate today introduced Constellation.2, the industry's first 2.5-inch enterprise-class hard drive to reach a record 1TB capacity. The company also announced the Barracuda Green hard drive, formerly Barracuda LP. The Constellation.2 drive is designed for server storage applications and offers a combination of high capacity, 6Gb/s performance and low power consumption.

The Constellation.2 drive is designed for system builders and OEMs and it is fit for use in a range of applications in Directed Attached Storage (DAS), Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Storage Area Network (SAN) environments, from small-to-midsized businesses to the largest enterprise data centers storing and hosting data to the cloud.

The Constellation.2 drive is offered in capacity choices of 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB, and with 6Gb/s SATA or 6Gb/s SAS interface options. Its second-generation design provides improved data integrity with the new T10 Protection Information standard and an increase in reliability (1.4 million hours MTBF). With a Self Encrypting Drive (SED) option, data security is covered throughout the entire drive lifecycle.

Dell expects to ship systems with this drive starting in late December.

Constellation.2 drives are currently shipping to Seagate's OEMs and the company's worldwide distribution channel.



New Barracuda Green

Seagate also today announced the availability of the Barracuda Green hard drive, a high-performance eco-friendly 3.5-inch desktop drive.

The Barracuda Green hard drive, formerly Barracuda LP, combines a spin speed of 5900 RPM with Seagate?s SmartAlign technology to deliver high performance. SmartAlign technology enables all the benefits of the new 4K sector standard while simplifying drive installation by eliminating the need for utilities often required to ensure optimum drive performance. The cool-running, lower-power Barracuda Green hard drive delivers quiet acoustics.

Barracuda Green hard drives also support Seagate Think Green programs for a greener more sustainable world. "Not only do Barracuda Green drives offer environmental improvements in power consumption and material usage, but these drives are also among the first hard drives from Seagate to offer SmartAlign technology," said Dave Mosley, Seagate executive vice president of Sales, Marketing and Product Line Management. "This is important because the industry is transitioning to 4K sector formatting called Advanced Format to improve capacities and maintain strong error correction. However, the transition to Advanced Format without SmartAlign technology can be complex and require additional integration steps and software utilities to avoid performance degradation. SmartAlign technology removes these concerns and makes this transition virtually invisible for our customers."

The Barracuda Green hard drive, offered in capacities of 2TB, 1.5TB and 1TB, is now shipping to the worldwide distribution channel.

Specifications Barracuda 3.5-inch SATA 5900 RPM 1.5TB Hard Drive - ST315005N4A1AS-RK

Interface: SATA 3Gb/s
Cache: 32MB
Capacity: 1.5TB
Guaranteed Sectors: 2,930,277,168
Height: 26.1mm (1.028 in)
Width: 101.85mm (4.010 in)
Length: 146.99mm (5.787 in)
Shipping Weight: 0.92kg (2.028 lb)
Spin Speed (RPM): 5900 RPM