Tuesday, April 6, 2004
New 1-Terabyte Hard Drive Is Tiny
Posted by Suhit Gupta in "HARDWARE" @ 10:00 AM
"Today's hard drives typically store around 80 gigabytes, or 80 billion bytes. Top-of-the-line models hold around 250 gigabytes and cost approximately $300. A thousand gigabytes equal a terabyte, or one trillion bytes. That's a lot of storage. A 1-terabyte drive, for example, can hold almost two years of continuous music or one month of nonstop MPEG-2 video! Talk about a bottomless pit.
The terabyte drive will be coming from LaCie, a company that's been around for about 12 years. The first model will be called the "Bigger Disk d2." The 1-terabyte drive is an external device that stands on its side and measures a scant 6.3 inches high, 3.4 inches wide and 10.6 inches in length. The d2 sports a triple interface ability that supports the USB 2.0, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 standards."
The d2 has been designed to work on both the Windows and Macintosh platforms without the need for additional software drivers. It spins at 7200rpm and has an 8MB buffer. The drive also offers a unique automatic startup, shutdown and hibernation option that reduces excess noise and saves energy. The LaCie Bigger Disk appears to have a price tag of $1,199. Additionally, they plan to release a new revision called Bigger Disk d2 Extreme, by May, that is identical to the d2 except the Firewire 800 interface will be further enhanced to take full advantage of the standard's highest-speed data-transfer rates. Check out their web site for more details.
The terabyte drive will be coming from LaCie, a company that's been around for about 12 years. The first model will be called the "Bigger Disk d2." The 1-terabyte drive is an external device that stands on its side and measures a scant 6.3 inches high, 3.4 inches wide and 10.6 inches in length. The d2 sports a triple interface ability that supports the USB 2.0, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 standards."
The d2 has been designed to work on both the Windows and Macintosh platforms without the need for additional software drivers. It spins at 7200rpm and has an 8MB buffer. The drive also offers a unique automatic startup, shutdown and hibernation option that reduces excess noise and saves energy. The LaCie Bigger Disk appears to have a price tag of $1,199. Additionally, they plan to release a new revision called Bigger Disk d2 Extreme, by May, that is identical to the d2 except the Firewire 800 interface will be further enhanced to take full advantage of the standard's highest-speed data-transfer rates. Check out their web site for more details.
