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Toshiba introduces tiny enterprise hard drives with big speed and big storage

Terrence O'Brien
Managing Editor
Updated ·6 min read

You're probably laughing to yourself right now saying, "300GB? That's not big storage." But, hear us out. The oh-so memorably titled MK01GRRB and MK01GRRR are not your standard hard drives -- these are enterprise-grade disks that spin at 15k RPM and fit in a 2.5-inch bay. Toshiba claims they're the highest capacity 2.5-inch, 15k drives on the market, and we couldn't dig up any evidence to the contrary. The 6Gb/s SAS connection makes sure businesses get the most they can out of those platters spinning at break neck speeds and the GRRR models include a self-encrypting feature. The two drives will start shipping in both 147 and 300GB sizes in Q1 of 2012, but pricing has yet to be announced. Check out the PR after the break for a few more details.

Update: Seagate wrote in to let us know that they had a similar drive at the same size, capacity and speed earlier this year. So, take that, Tosh.

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Toshiba Introduces Industry's Highest-Capacity Enterprise Small Form Factor 15k RPM HDD

Toshiba Doubles Capacity of High Performance Enterprise Drives and Adds Self Encrypting Model to Meet a Wide Range of Enterprise Application Requirements

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Continuing its leadership of innovation in small form factor hard disk drives (HDD), Toshiba's Storage Products Business Unit, a division of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc, announced the industry's highest-capacity 2.5-inch high performance enterprise-class drive. The Toshiba MK01GRRB/R series supports the exacting requirements of compute-intensive environments with a 15,000 RPM spin speed, 6Gb/s SAS interface, and top capacity of 300GB1. In addition, the Toshiba MK01GRRR models offer drive-based encryption to help companies manage data security.

"Enterprise customers are increasingly satisfying their performance and capacity needs with power efficient small form factor drives. Enterprise drives with the latest self-encryption features are helping data centers to more cost-effectively achieve compliance with information security mandates," said Joel Hagberg, vice president of marketing at Toshiba's Storage Products Business Unit. "Toshiba small form factor enterprise drives deliver the performance, capacity and security features IT administrators require for today's mission critical server, storage and cloud appliance markets."

Toshiba's third generation 2.5-inch 15,000 RPM enterprise drives leverage an enhanced power condition state that reduces drive spin in idle states, significantly lowering power consumption. Lower power consumption also means lower heat dissipation, which increases system stability, and less energy use. This saves enterprises money and reduces the impact on the environment.

As part of its commitment to improved security, the Toshiba MK01GRRR drive features self-encryption technology designed to the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) "Enterprise SSC" specification. SED technology provides simple and complete data security throughout the drive's usable life cycle – with no performance impact – and enables organizations to crypto-graphically erase protected data securely, enabling the ability to return, service, repurpose, or retire drives without lengthy data overwrite operations or physical destruction of the drive.

"Increasing the capacity of 2.5-inch enterprise class HDDs is expanding the market opportunity for this form factor given its inherent power and data density advantages as compared to 3.5-inch models," said John Rydning, IDC's research vice president for hard disk drives. "Toshiba's new MK01GRRB/R series drives give server and storage system customers the capacity they want with the performance they need, as well as the ability to secure data on the drive with Toshiba's SED technology option." The Toshiba MK01GRRB/R series is scheduled to begin volume shipments in Q1 2012. For more information on Toshiba's line of industry-leading enterprise-class small form factor hard drives, visit www.toshibastorage.com.

About Toshiba Storage

Toshiba is a one-of-a-kind global storage company, offering hard disk drives (HDDs), solid state drives (SSDs) and NAND flash memories – technologies that drive a wide range of consumer electronics, computer and automotive applications, as well as enterprise solutions for the global marketplace. Toshiba leads in the development, design and manufacture of mobile, retail and enterprise hard disk drives. In North America, the Storage Products Business Unit of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. markets high-quality storage peripherals to original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers, value-added resellers, value-added dealers, systems integrators and distributors worldwide. Inherent in the Toshiba storage family are the high-quality engineering and manufacturing capabilities that have established Toshiba products as innovation leaders worldwide. For more information, visit www.toshibastorage.com.

About Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC)

Through proven commitment, lasting relationships and advanced, reliable electronic components, Toshiba enables its customers to create market-leading designs. Toshiba is the heartbeat within product breakthroughs from OEMs, ODMs, CMs, VARs, distributors and fabless chip companies worldwide. A committed electronic components leader, Toshiba designs and manufactures high-quality flash memory-based storage solutions, solid state drives (SSDs), hard disk drives (HDDs), discrete devices, LCD displays, advanced materials, medical tubes, custom SoCs/ASICs, imaging products, microcontrollers and wireless components that make possible today's leading cell phones, MP3 players, cameras, medical devices, automotive electronics, enterprise solutions and more.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, Japan's largest semiconductor manufacturer and the world's third largest semiconductor manufacturer (Gartner, 2010 WW Semiconductor Revenue, April 2011). Toshiba was founded in 1875, and today has more than 490 subsidiaries and affiliates, with 203,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of $77 billion. Visit Toshiba's web site at www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm.

© 2011 Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. All rights reserved. All product, service and company names are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. Information in this press release, including product pricing and specifications, content of services and contact information, is current and believed to be accurate on the date of the announcement, but is subject to change without prior notice. Technical and application information contained here is subject to the most recent applicable Toshiba product specifications.

1. One Gigabyte (1GB) means 109 = 1,000,000,000 bytes using powers of 10. A computer operating system, however, reports storage capacity using powers of 2 for the definition of 1GB = 230 = 1,073,741,824 bytes and therefore shows less storage capacity. Available storage capacity (including examples of various media files) will vary based on file size, formatting, settings, software and operating system, such as Microsoft Operating System and/or pre-installed software applications, or media content. Actual formatted capacity may vary.