Date: 01/10/2012

High speed hybrid storage drives from Toshiba for notebooks and PCs

Toshiba Corporation has announced its launch of two 2.5-inch form factor Hybrid Drives that bring new levels of high speed read and write performance to notebook and desktop PCs. The new drives, which integrate high capacity hard disk drives and NAND flash memory in a single unit, are to be available in two capacities, 1 terabyte (TB) and 750 gigabytes (GB). Sample shipments have started.

The new drives 1TB MQ01ABD100H and 750GB MQ01ABD075H utilize hard disks to deliver high level capacity and 8GB NAND flash memory as a cache memory to support high speed data throughput. As a result, Toshiba said that,
1. The read and write times are about three times faster than in Toshiba hard disk drives with equivalent capacities
2. The new Hybrid Drive decreases application boot times by about 40% in PCs
3. With a 2.5-inch form factor and high capacity, the new drives are suitably positioned as a high performance alternative for portable and desktop PCs

In operation, data is allocated to one of the Hybrid Drive's three memory layers: DRAM buffer memory, NAND flash memory or the magnetic disk media. This process is improved by an algorithm that dynamically learns the user's data access pattern and stores data accordingly to the appropriate tier. High speed access is obtained by storing frequently accessed data in the NAND flash memory.

Increasingly strong demands for storage capacities need to be met by today’s PCs that can handle multiple HD videos and other data-rich sources and a read/write performance that can meet the demands of ever faster CPU and graphics chips. Toshiba has offered business and consumers the solution of the Hybrid Drive, a large capacity drive that matches the capacity of HDD with data access speeds like the SSD.

Key features:
1. Self-learning caching algorithm:
Toshiba's Hybrid Dive technology integrates NAND flash memory (8GB of 32nm SLC) and a self-learning caching algorithm for data writing. The three tiers of memory, DRAM, NAND flash memory and hard disk media all have different read/write speeds, and data is allocated into them as appropriately by the algorithm, as it learns the user's data access pattern when the system is in operation. High speed access is achieved by storing frequently accessed data to the NAND flash memory.

2. 1TB high capacity
MQ01ABD100H achieves a surface recording density of 1,153.4Mbit/mm2 (744.1Gbit/in2) and 1TB capacity with two disks and a product height of 9.5mm. MQ01ABD075H achieves a surface recording density of 858.1Mbit/mm2 and a 750GB capacity.

3. 3. 6Gb/s high speed SATA I/F

High-speed data transfers are secured by adoption of state-of-the-art SATA I/F Revision 3.0(ATA8) capable of a 6Gb/s transfer rate.

4. Environmentally conscious products
a. These HDD products are halogen- and antimony-free.
b. The new drives are compatible with the European Union's RoHS directive on the elimination of six hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment.
c. Hybrid Drives comply with Toshiba Group's Voluntary Environmental Standards for Products (ECP Standards), which aim to secure the industry's highest level of environmental standards.

For product specifications: http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2012_09/pr2501.htm

Source: Toshiba