Yesterday, Seagate has not only released the third generation of hybrid drives in the form factor 2.5 , but also announced the availability of the world's first hybrid drive form factor 3.5, which will combine up to 2 TB of disk space and 8 GB of solid state memory.
Associates communicated with Seagate, and described in detail the new generation of hybrid drives. First , the solid-state cache 8GB combines memory types SLC and MLC. The first segment is only used to record and store the data needed to boot the system, as the SLC-memory has the advantage in speed. MLC memory block is 200-% reserve resource, so for five years of intensive use it should be sufficient. However, the warranty will expire in three years. According to Seagate, the average user will not be able to exhaust the resources of memory installed in the hybrid drive. Seagate hybrid drives have a battery of capacitors that can prevent data loss with a sudden power failure.
If installed in laptops Seagate hybrid drives have reduced up to 5400 r / min spindle speed, the desktop model 3.5 "still holds 7,200 r / min. However, in this segment the range of hybrid drives soon will be complemented by model larger than 2 TB, which will have a lower rotation speed.
At mid-year, Seagate will also offer a hybrid drive for ultrabooks, which was developed in collaboration with Intel, and therefore supports caching Intel Smart Response. Solid buffer capacity of this drive will be increased to meet Intel requirements .
Seagate says that hybrid drives 2.5" will be $ 15-20 more expensive than their traditional counterparts. 3.5" version will be released by the end of April, it will cost $ 99 (1TB) and $ 149 (2TB), respectively.