Back in 2010, when we got our hands on the Momentus XT from Seagate, solid-state technology was an emerging, but expensive, technology. A hybrid drive that allowed a cache of flash memory and the capacity of mechanical drives allowed consumers to experience the vast improvements of SSD’s at a much lower entry price. Three years have given Seagate time to improve on this technology, and today I get a tour of what’s next with SSHD as they are now known, Seagate in general, and the recently acquired premium LaCie brand.
Written by: Adam
Pictures by: Adam
Seagate is now in their third generation of solid-state hybrid technology, which is an advantage of having been an early adopter to the hybrid drive market. A shift from the old Momentus XT naming to SSDH (solid-state hybrid technology) has been made to simplify product lines. A few upgrades to how the drive works create the new generation. First, a thinner form factor 7mm drive has been introduced, which is perfect for ultrabooks. In fact, ultrabooks should benefit in several ways from hybrid drives, the most basic of which being if its more affordable, the end product will be more affordable. The platform itself has been changed from SLC to MLC flash for better performance, and cycle wear issues generally associated straight solid state drives by reading primarily from NAND.
A real-world demonstration of the SSHDs used two identical Playstation 3’s and the game Dragon Age 2. The unit on the right used the stock hard drive, while the unit on the left used one of Seagate’s SSHD units. Both were then told to load the exact same saved data, and to no surprise, the SSHD loaded first. The demonstrator then exited the game back to the main menu, and chose to reload the saved data again. It was shy of maybe two seconds from loading a second time before the stock hard drive loaded even once.
Seagate acquired LaCie in June, continuing with mainstream consumer products and continue to market LaCie as a premium design. The first main announcement was LaCie was the 5big NAS Pro, their latest server that comes bundled with in-house developed software that allows for a “cloud” sharing service. The 2big NAS is also available for a smaller option. The software also allows for multi-platform across Android and iOS as well.
The LaCie Blade Runner was also showcased, which is a great example of the effort LaCie puts into design. This external enclosure was specially designed to stand out aesthetically.
