Seagate Dips a Toe Into Solid State Drives
By Ashlee Vance
The Momentus Thin hard drive
Seagate Technology finally stepped into the world of solid state storage drives this week, taking the wraps off of its 200 GB Pulsar drives, aimed at server computers.
But when it comes to PC hard drives, Seagate continues to resist the pull of solid state. Indeed, next week, the company plans to unveil the Momentus Thin hard drive, which it bills as the world’s thinnest 2.5-inch conventional hard drive. Seagate has aimed the product, which is 7 mm high, at netbooks and ultra-thin laptops.
Seagate, the largest producer of hard disks, had opted to stay out of the solid state race until now. As a result, smaller companies like STEC have carved out a leading position when it comes to data-center solid state storage, and the usual folks like Samsung and SanDisk have dug into the PC market with their speedy drives.
Solid state disks, which have no moving parts and rely on flash technology rather than a spinning platter, cost more than standard hard disks and tend to have less storage space. Still, they offer huge performance gains on certain jobs. For that reason, companies and researchers that need super-fast access to information have bought servers and storage systems with solid state drives. Some performance-oriented consumer PCs are also equipped with them.
Seagate executives have argued that the solid state market suffers from hype overload. They’re quick to remind people that the solid state sales make up a tiny fraction of overall disk sales and that the Ferrari-like drives aid a relatively small percentage of buyers at the moment.
When it comes to data-center jobs, Dave Mosley, the executive vice president of sales and marketing at Seagate, said that about 5 percent to 10 percent of existing storage systems could benefit from a SSD boost.
For the laptop market, however, Seagate seems to think that price still trumps the extra zip of SSD drives when it comes to attracting consumers.
Seagate contends that the Momentus Thin, a conventional drive, offers the space-saving benefits of an SSD at a cheaper price. The drive comes in 250 GB and 160 GB flavors and retails for $55, although computer makers will pay less.
You can bet that the Momentus Thin will pop up in more than a few laptops at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Netbooks and ultra-thin laptops remain all the rage in the PC market.
Looking to 2010, Mr. Mosley vowed that Seagate will dish out more solid state drives.
Seagate’s big pitch in the solid state market is its storage experience. Mr. Mosley bragged that Seagate has the best test facilities and deepest software knowledge of all the storage makers in the land. These strengths should help make Seagate’s drives more reliable in the data center realm and give the company an edge in building drives to handle specific software applications, he said.
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