Seagate Tops the Hard Drive Green List

 

Seagate is committed to helping create sustainable storage solutions by reducing energy consumption with the world's most efficient storage devices. But thinking green means more than just delivering low-power products. Seagate has also taken a leadership role in supply-chain transparency through a "full materials disclosure" approach, helping to reduce the levels of toxic materials in its products.

Seagate drives are more efficient.
At Seagate, there is no special category for green drives. That is because all of our drives are green. Every hard drive is designed and built to the highest global standards of green manufacturing and packaging.

In the enterprise storage sector Seagate�s Cheetah, Savvio and Constellation drives reduce data centre power and cooling by up to 92 per cent with technologies such as PowerTrim and on-demand PowerChoice. Seagate Self-Encrypting Drives (SEDs) with instant SecureErase technology are available across all enterprise drive families. A single command makes data inaccessible, allowing SEDs to be repurposed or reused securely, extending their lives and cutting down on wastage.

Seagate desktop Barracuda LP hard drives are the low-power drives that will not slow you down. The Barracuda LP series combines industry-leading power efficiency with a 20 per cent performance advantage over competitors' "green" drives. LP, of course, stands for Low Power.

In notebook storage, Seagate�s Momentus hard drives are low-power drives by nature. With instant SecureErase technology, which makes data inaccessible, Seagate Secure Self-Encrypting Drive models can be repurposed or reused securely, thus extending the life of the drive.

Seagate's external storage solutions feature all of the inherent benefits of our desktop and notebook hard drives, with the added environmentally friendly advantages of streamlined packaging that minimises material waste and reduces fuel costs while being 100 per cent recyclable, plus Energy Star-compliant AC power adaptors for low power consumption.

Seagate leads the industry 'in environmental transparency.  
Most storage device manufacturers are aware of the exact make-up of less than one percent of the materials in their products. Why? Because those are the toxic materials that their customers hold them accountable for.  Seagate tracks 96% of the materials in its hard drives from all of its suppliers, with a goal to track 100%.  This documented understanding � full materials disclosure - allows Seagate to respond quickly and with credible data as its customers decide to monitor or restrict new materials. Full materials disclosure spans all drive categories and provides clear information on the chemical content of products, thus bringing to market environmentally friendly solutions.

Seagate was recognised as the greenest storage device manufacturer by Newsweek magazine in its 2009 Green Rankings of Fortune 500 companies.  Seagate was ranked 182 positions higher than its nearest competitor on the list. The company�s approach has also been recognised in the ChemSec & CPA Report �Greening Consumer Electronics� and in a report from BusinessWeek. And, of course, all Seagate products comply with the European Union�s RoHS directive (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive).

 

Seagate � A Technology Leader

 

Seagate Technology is the is the world�s leading hard disk drive producer, shipping approximately 175 million units in 2009. The company has the strongest product portfolio in the industry and serves the largest customer base.

Seagate�s strength is based on a number of factors and high on the list is its leadership in technology and in product introductions. Over the past few months the company has announced several hard drive products in a number of different market segments.

In the desktop segment, for example, the company has launched its Barracuda LP and Barracuda XT products. The power-thrifty Barracuda LP hard drive combines the largest storage capacity available with the best power efficiency and performance in its class, using as much as 50 percent less electricity than standard desktop hard drives.

The new line of Seagate Barracuda LP (Low Power) hard drives deliver on the promise of sustainability, energy efficiency and a more eco-friendly footprint by helping organizations cut PC power costs and giving money-minded consumers great performance for their energy dollar. They help reduce system power costs, runs quieter than traditional drives and operate at lower temperatures, extending the life of system components.

The Barracuda XT � which started shipping in September of last year � is the world�s fastest, largest-capacity mainstream desktop hard drive. It�s a 7200RPM product featuring 2TB of storage capacity and a blazing fast Serial ATA (SATA) 6Gb/second interface. The 3.5-inch desktop drive, the industry�s first to feature a SATA 6Gb/s interface, meets the capacity demands of gaming, digital video-environments and other storage-hungry desktop computing applications while delivering the highest performance in its class.The introduction of the Barracuda XT drive marks the shift to the next generation of desktop computing speed as Seagate doubles the storage bandwidth of current computers.

In the enterprise computing space Seagate introduced Pulsar - its first solid state drive(SSD) - in December. Designed for enterprise blade and general server applications, the Pulsar drive uses single-level cell (SLC) technology, delivers up to 200GB capacity, and is built in a 2.5-inch small form factor with a SATA interface. The Pulsar drive leverages Seagate�s 30 years of leadership in meeting large enterprise customer needs in product development, qualification, and support.

The Pulsar SSD delivers the necessary performance, reliability, and endurance to match the application environments of enterprise blade and general servers. It achieves a peak performance of up to 30,000 read IOPS and 25,000 write IOPS, 240MB/s sequential read and 200 MB/s sequential write. Its SLC-based design optimizes reliability and endurance and helps provide a .44% AFR rating with a 5-year limited warranty. As an additional safeguard, the Pulsar drive leverages Seagate�s enterprise storage expertise to protect against data loss in the event of power failure.

Also in the enterprise segment, Seagate has shown its leadership by being the first to introduce Self Encrypting Drive (SED) security technology across its entire enterprise line of hard drives. SED technology provides two key benefits in the enterprise:

• Instant Secure Erase: Cryptographically erases a drive, whether it's 73GB or 1TB � in less than a second enabling secure drive return, disposal, or reuse.
• Auto-Lock: Automatically locks the drive and secures the data the moment a drive is removed from a system or a drive or system is misplaced or stolen.

In the fast-growing notebook segment of the hard drive market, Seagate has launched Momentus Thin, the world�s thinnest 2.5-inch hard disk drive for ultra-portable and entry-level laptops, high-end netbooks, backup devices and consumer electronics. At a wafer-thin 7mm in height � 25 percent slimmer than traditional 9.5mm 2.5-inch laptop hard drives � the Momentus Thin drive gives original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and system integrators significantly lower cost-per-gigabyte storage than solid state and 1.8-inch drives, enabling a new breed of entry-level thin laptops.

Of all netbook computers available today, 90 percent feature 9.5mm 2.5-inch laptop drives because solid state and 1.8-inch hard drives are largely cost-prohibitive for this market. The Momentus Thin drive provides affordable, thin storage for netbooks and slim laptops, enabling computer makers to offer systems that reach a broader market.

And finally, in the retail segment, Seagate has been bringing its expertise to the consumer market with its FreeAgent range of innovative external hard drives and accessories. Seagate now offers desktop external hard drives based on a 3.5� disk drives in capacities of up to two terabytes. And its portable 2.5� products � FreeAgent Go � now provide up to one terabyte of storage capacity. In addition Seagate produces the FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player and the FreeAgent DockStar network adapter, an amazingly simple way to access and share your digital content, and Seagate has all the bases covered for the content-hungry digital consumer.