Hitachi cuts power use for energy-efficient desktop hard drive
(Technology News, 01 Nov 2007 )
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has developed what’s said to be the world’s most energy efficient desktop hard disk drive (HDD) – the Deskstar P7K500. Hitachi GST has implemented a set of power-saving technologies to reduce the P7K500’s active and idle power consumption by up to 40 percent over the previous generation. As a result, the P7K500 achieves best-of-breed power consumption on its one-disk model and significant power savings on its two-disk model, both with 7200 RPM performance and Serial-ATA interface. Hitachi GST’s new hard drive is designed for commercial and consumer PCs in capacities ranging from 250GB to 500GB*. The P7K500 is up to 59 percent more power efficient than comparable 250GB hard drives in its class, based on available specifications.
The industry-leading power specifications offered on the Deskstar P7K500 support “green” initiatives that are aimed at producing power-friendly PCs and give significant advantage to PC manufacturers wishing to create ENERGY STAR-compliant devices. ENERGY STAR PCs are allotted a budget of as low as 50 watts for idle power, of which the hard drive typically uses 7 watts, or 14 percent of the overall system requirement.
Through a 40-percent power reduction, Hitachi GST has delivered unmatched idle power utilization of 3.6 watts on the 250GB capacity model and 4.8 watts on models with capacities of 320GB or greater. Similarly, the P7K500 has reduced its active power requirements to 6.4 watts and 8.2 watts for its one- and two-disk models, respectively. By utilizing roughly half the 7 watts of idle power typically allocated for hard drives, Hitachi GST enables ENERGY STAR PCs to budget more power margin for additional high-value features or to reduce overall power requirements.
“The development of ‘green’ computing products that comply with energy-rating programs, such as ENERGY STAR 4.0, is becoming an extremely important initiative for our customers,” said Shinjiro Iwata, executive vice president, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “With the Deskstar P7K500 hard drive, we have merged our various power management innovations into one drive, achieving leading power specifications that make a positive contribution to system power consumption.”
Built using Hitachi GST’s sixth-generation power management technology, as well as other new energy innovations, the Deskstar P7K500 represents a significant decrease in power consumption over its predecessor as well as competitive hard drives in its class.
In addition, the P7K500 incorporates Hitachi GST’s second-generation perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) heads and disks, enabling 250GB-per-platter areal density and ensuring a high level of reliability. With the delivery of this next-generation desktop hard drive, Hitachi GST provides a complete desktop HDD product portfolio built on the industry’s most reliable PMR technology.
