Two 15,000 rpms from Hitachi

Hitachi has announced the release of two new hard drives that function at 15,000 rpm. They come in two formats: 3.5" for the Ultrastar 15K600 and 2.5" for the Ultrastar C15K147. This is the first time that Hitachi has brought out a 15K rpm drive in this format, while Seagate launched its 15K Savvio in January 2007. The Ultrastar 15K600 will be competition for the Cheetah 15K.7 that was announced in July, while the Ultrastar C15K147 will compete with the Savvio 15K.2, that dates from November 2008.

Both Ultrastars use the SAS 6 GB/s interface but the first also offers FCAL 4 GB/s. In terms of disk space, the 15K600 has, as its name indicates, a capacity of 600 GB with two smaller versions: 300 and 450 GB, the capacities of the previous 15K450 range. The C15K147 is available in two versions with capacities of 73 and 147 GB. Hitachi has announced speeds from 116 to 159 MB/s and an access time of 3 ms. In comparision, according to Seagate, the Savvio 15K.2 has an access time of 2.9 ms and speeds of between 122 and 160 MB/s.

The drives should be available immediately. The C15K147 73 GB is already on sale at $260 and the 147 GB at around $330.