ACADEMIA

SAN JOSE, CA -- IBM today delivers an industrial-strength server hard disk drive to take on the most intensive business environments. The Ultrastar 146Z10 is a rock-solid hard drive, backed by rigorous quality-assurance testing. It also debuts with new anti-vibration technology called Rotational Vibration Safeguard (RVS) to improve performance in large disk arrays. Available today, the new Ultrastar 146Z10 is the first 10,000 RPM hard drive of its generation to ship in volume and has a top capacity of 146 gigabytes (GB). To enhance performance, the drive comes with a large eight megabyte (MB) cache. RVS addresses a problem inherent to multi-drive systems. As rotational speeds have increased and multiple drives are housed in powerful disk arrays, vibration is exacerbated and results in performance degradation. RVS represents advanced servo technology that autonomically compensates for vibration caused by multiple disk drives operating simultaneously. It intelligently identifies the direction and intensity of the vibration and cancels out the deleterious effects of the vibration. IBM is the first to implement the technology for mass production. "We have the utmost confidence that the Ultrastar 146Z10 will give customers what they need and break the strides of our competitors," said Doug Grose, general manager, IBM Storage Technology Division. "Combined technology leadership and comprehensive qualification testing in the new Ultrastar put us in great position to succeed in the server hard drive marketplace." To enhance business-critical reliability and performance, IBM has reinforced the Ultrastar with advanced software for disk drive intelligence and self-analysis; antiferromagnetically-coupled media (AKA "pixie dust") for temperature and data stability; and sophisticated read/write component designs for high-speed recording and data access. IBM's new server drive has undergone extensive testing in a variety of simulated customer environments with overwhelmingly positive results. In laboratory stress tests, the Ultrastar 146Z10 has demonstrated a reliability rate consistent with the most demanding customer requirements for server hard drives. "We've worked to ensure the integrity of the Ultrastar 146Z10 as a trusted work horse and data backbone for businesses worldwide, and are delighted with the reliability results," added Grose. "In our own testings, the Ultrastar 146Z10 clearly lives up to its 'rock-solid' promise, which makes it a valuable addition to Bell Microproducts' comprehensive range of storage offerings," said Jerry Kagele, executive vice president, Computer Products, Bell Microproducts." As one of the world's largest storage-centric value-added distributors, we're excited to bring such a high-quality hard disk drive to the market and to provide buyers with a broad selection of server-class products." The Ultrastar 146Z10 shows more than a 15-percent increase in sustained data throughput and 10-percent improvement in WinBench metrics over previous generation drives. IBM's new server drive is available at the industry's broadest range of capacity points: 18, 36, 73 and 146 GB. The drive also delivers low acoustics and continues IBM's focus on power efficiency. With industry-leading glass media and load/unload technology, the 146Z10 also provides outstanding shock tolerance. IBM's new server hard drive supports the industry's leading interfaces, including Ultra 320 SCSI and 2 Gb Fibre Channel with backward compatibility to previous generation. The Ultrastar 146Z10's technical excellence is advanced by worldwide product integration support through IBM's Systems Integration Test (SIT) Labs. The SIT Labs ease customers' integration process by providing tailored offerings for customers, testing and assistance on integration. Technical Specifications: -- Ultrastar 146Z10 -- 146/73/36/18 GB -- 780 grams (max) -- 10,000 RPM -- 3 ms average latency -- 825 Mbps max media transfer rate -- 26.3 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density -- 6/3/2/1 glass disk platter(s) -- 12/6/3/2 GMR recording head(s) -- 225 Gs (1ms) nonoperating shock, 45 Gs (2 ms) operating shock -- 4.7 ms average seek time -- 25.4 mm (+/-0.4) -- 3.7 Bels typical idle acoustics -- 4.5 Bels typical operating acoustics -- 8 MB buffer -- Power: 10.2 watts (idle), 16.0 (max) -- Ultra320 SCSI compatible; backward compatible to Ultra160 SCSI -- 2Gb Fibre Channel compatible; backward compatible to 1Gb