Next-generation high-performance HDD supports 12Gbit/s SAS and 512n

Toshiba Electronics Europe announces its newest enterprise-performance hard disk drive (HDD) line, the AL14SE series, designed for mission critical servers and high-performance, high-availability storage systems. The AL14SE is Toshiba’s latest 10,500 rotations per minute (RPM) HDD to support 12.0 Gbit/s SAS and 512n sector length for compatibility with the latest generation host controllers and host bus adapters. The AL14SE features a new four-platter design increasing storage capacity by 33 per cent over the previous AL13SE generation models. Performance is improved by the integration of an updated 128MB data buffer. The AL14SE family of HDDs provides 12.0 Gbit/s dual-ported SAS support and 512n sector models in industry standard capacities of 300GB, 450GB, 600GB, 900GB and 1200GB[2]. The HDD is designed to support OEM customisations of value-add features such as optional RAID rebuild assist and optional self-encryption feature sets. The standard 12.0 Gbit/s SAS feature provides auto-negotiation to 6.0 Gbit/s SAS for legacy host controllers, enabling compatibility within legacy hardware platforms and host controllers. For applications and hypervisor environments that require storage devices to support 512n sector, the new Toshiba models deliver this sector length with the improved performance of 12.0 Gbit/s SAS and a larger 128MB data buffer. Ideally suited for server and storage systems and applications, the AL14SE provides a balance between storage capacity and performance in virtualised storage environments, says the company. “The AL14SE line of HDDs is optimised for applications requiring a balance between reduced latency for higher performance and a lower cost for storage capacity,” said Martin Larsson, vice president of Toshiba Electronics Europe, Storage Products Division. “Our OEM partners appreciate Toshiba’s ability to support 512n sector lengths for optimum integration with virtualised storage environments and to provide value-add feature options to tailor security and performance to their specific needs."