Hitachi notebook drive 'fastest in its class'

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 02 September 2009 06:31

Business IT - Technology

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies claims the new Travelstar 7K500 hard drive is the fastest in its class. The device also implements on-disk encryption for security without adding to the processing load.

Hitachi's 2.5in SATA Travelstar 7K500 combines capacity (500G), performance (as measured by the PC Mark Vantage benchmark) and low power consumption (0.69w idle, 1.8w read/write).

Other features include bulk data encryption (BDE), which automatically encrypts data as it is written and decrypts it when read. Hitachi officials claim the Travel7K500 is one of the first mobile drives to comply with the Trusted Computing Group's (TCG's) Opal storage security specification.

According to the TCG, Opal provides a secure boot capability as well as protecting user data from compromise due to the loss, theft, repurposing or end of life of the storage device.

In most circumstances, BDE eliminates the need to wipe drives prior to disposal as deleting the encryption key (or removing the drive from the system) renders the data unreadable.
 
"With Hitachi's support for the TCG Opal specification, we're working with industry leaders who are enabling more widespread adoption and interoperability across the entire storage ecosystem," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

The Travelstar 7K500 is now shipping to top-tier OEMs, with general availability later this month. It is offered in 120, 160, 250, 320 and 500G versions.

November will see the introduction of enhanced availability models with 160 to 500G capacities for situations such as blade servers and surveillance systems that require round-the-clock operation.