Maxtor Announces 17.2 Gigabyte DiamondMax 4320 Series of Hard Disk Drives
Shipping in Volume This Month with Industry-Leading Areal Density, The DiamondMax 4320 Continues Maxtor's Time-To-Market Leadership
MILPITAS, Calif., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Maxtor(R) Corp. (Nasdaq: MXTR - news) today announced the DiamondMax(TM) 4320 series of hard disk drives, the latest addition to the award-winning DiamondMax family. The DiamondMax 4320 offers capacities up to 17.2 GB, UltraDMA compatibility and an average seek time of 9.0 ms.
The new drive has been in volume production at Maxtor's Singapore plant for several weeks and will begin shipping this month. The DiamondMax 4320 is one of the first 4.3 GB-per-disk desktop drives shipping in volume from any manufacturer, continuing Maxtor's time-to-market leadership established over the last several quarters.
''The new DiamondMax 4320 series of drives continues to demonstrate our consistent execution in delivering new products to market ahead of the industry,'' said Mike Cannon, Maxtor's president and CEO. ''The quality, capacity and performance of this new drive will provide outstanding value to our customers.''
17.2 GB DiamondMax 4320
The DiamondMax 4320 drives hold 4,320 megabytes per disk and are available in capacities up to 17.2 GB. They are Maxtor's seventh-generation drive series with magneto-resistive (MR) heads. Other features shared by DiamondMax 4320 and its predecessors are a digital signal processor (DSP)-based electronics architecture, partial response maximum likelihood (PRML) read channel technology, and Maxtor's exclusive Formula4(TM) four-disk head disk assembly (HDA). Combined, these technologies result in a higher-capacity, higher-performance drive with a lower cost per megabyte.
New Interface and Technology
Initial shipments of the DiamondMax 4320 drives feature UltraDMA 33 compatibility, with later shipments featuring advanced UltraDMA 66 interface technology. The DiamondMax 4320 drives will be the first of Maxtor's drive series to incorporate UltraDMA 66 compatibility. UltraDMA 66-compatible DiamondMax 4320 drives will carry a ''U'' in the model number. UltraDMA 66 improves throughput speeds by doubling (from UltraDMA 33) the data transfer rate to/from the interface to 66 MB per second. UltraDMA 66 also improves data integrity by performing cyclic redundancy checks to detect transfer errors between the system and the hard drive.
Additionally, the DiamondMax 4320 also premiers the introduction of Maxtor's unique MaxSafe(TM) System for automatically detecting, isolating and repairing hard drive problems. The MaxSafe System is supported by several key technologies including:
* Enhancements to Maxtor's S.M.A.R.T. technology;
* Error Correction Code (ECC) with 33-bit on-the-fly hardware correction
and 81-bit software correction;
* Improved thermal asperity handling and recovery for higher data
reliability;
* Maxtor's unique "error event logging" mechanism that provides better
customer support.
The MaxSafe System operates constantly in the background, but it does not adversely affect drive performance or require the user to perform any configuration or system modifications. In fact, this system can provide increased benchmark performance, higher data reliability and better customer support.
The DiamondMax 4320 incorporates some of the most advanced disk drive features and performance specifications available today, including:
•9.0 ms average seek time; •5,400 RPM spindle speed; •Up to 512 KB cache buffer; •Magneto-resistive heads; •UltraDMA/ PIO Mode 4/ DMA Mode 2 compatibility; •Exclusive Formula4(TM) HDA; •PRML read channel technology; •DSP-based electronics architecture; •Compliance with the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology •(S.M.A.R.T.) system; •Custom on-the-fly Error Correction Code logic, capable of correcting multiple error bursts without performance loss; •Low power consumption and ATA power saving commands that support EPA Energy Star ''Green PC'' standards; •Mean time between failure (MTBF) rating of >500,000 hours; •Minimum start/stop cycle rating of 50,000; •Three-year warranty.
Breaking the 8.4 GB Capacity Barrier
Due to BIOS and operating system limitations, many of today's PCs are not equipped to handle hard drives with capacities greater than 8.4 GB. Maxtor addresses this limitation with its exclusive MaxBlast(TM) installation software, an easy-to-use solution for breaking the 8.4 GB barrier. MaxBlast Plus makes it possible for most computers to work with the 17.2 GB DiamondMax 4320.
The DiamondMax Legacy
Maxtor's DiamondMax family of drives has been extremely well received since its introduction in late 1996. The 5.1 GB DiamondMax 1280 was named to Windows Magazine's WinList -- a first for an EIDE drive -- and to the magazine's ''Win100'' list of the 100 best hardware products of the year. The DiamondMax 1750 and DiamondMax 2160 were named to the magazine's ''Win100'' this year. The DiamondMax 1750 has received recommendations from Computer Reseller News, PC Computing and Windows Sources.
In its February 1998 issue, BYTE Magazine also recognized the DiamondMax 1280 and the 8.4 GB DiamondMax 2160 as the best overall desktop drive and best overall server-class drive, respectively. The 8.4 GB DiamondMax 2160 also received PC World's ''1998 Best Hard Drive of the Year.'' VARBusiness has also named Maxtor as its ''1998 Product Report'' winner.
Pricing and Availability
Estimated retail pricing for the DiamondMax 4320 17.2 GB drive is $399. Maxtor's retail-packaged drives contain all the necessary equipment for fast and easy installation, including hard drive interface cables, illustrated installation guide and MaxBlast(TM) Plus, Maxtor's exclusive installation software. Like all Maxtor products, DiamondMax 4320 drives are backed by Maxtor's exclusive No Quibble(R) Service, which includes two 24-hour automated services: MaxInfo(TM) automated technical assistance system, and MaxFax(TM) automatic fax-back service. Additionally, technical assistance is available via Email on the World Wide Web, and live telephone assistance is available Monday through Friday.
About Maxtor
Maxtor Corp. (Nasdaq: MXTR - news) develops, manufactures and markets hard disk drives for desktop computer systems. Maxtor's other current products include the DiamondMax 3400, the DiamondMax Plus 2500 and the DiamondMax 2880 series of drives. Maxtor can be reached by phone at (800)2-MAXTOR or on the Internet at maxtor.com. |
