Western Digital (WD) has new 2.5 inch SATA hard disks for blade servers and rack servers. The new Velociraptor HDDs pack 300GB and consume 35% less power than their predecessors and spin around 10,000 times per minute. WD claims the new 'Raptors clock in at 1.4 million hours Mean time between failures, which roughly translates to them being totally reliable for ages on end until the sun dies and the universe implodes. It also makes them better than competing server hard disks, if WD is to believed. Cache is 16Mb large whilst the SATA interface is 3 Gb a second wide.

The hard disks feature Notouch ramp load technology, which ensures the disk head never ever touches the disk itself, thus making the whole thing last longer. Rotary acceleration feed forward (or RAFF, as WD calls it) caresses and fondles the Velociraptor if its in a shakey place with a lot of its kin, or other offspring. The drives are currently being looked at, taken apart and examined by OEM customers and will be up for grabs by the end of the month.

“The new 2.5-inch WD Velociraptor drive is the only drive available that can offer server customers the flexibility of integrating SATA technology while benefiting from server-class performance and reliability,” remarked WD big wig Tom McDorman, whilst donning chainmail armour to make sure the snappy dinosaurs didn't bite of a finger or two, or something even more precious. X