Seagate Technology (http://www.seagate.com) has begun global
shipments of what is says is the world's fastest, largest-capacity
mainstream desktop hard drive -- the Barracuda XT, a 7200RPM product
featuring 2TB of storage capacity and a Serial ATA (SATA) 6GB/second
interface.

The 3.5-inch desktop drive, the industry's first to feature a SATA
6Gb/s interface, meets the capacity demands of gaming, digital
video-environments and other storage-hungry desktop computing
applications while delivering the highest performance in its class,
according to Dave Mosley, executive vice president of sales and
marketing at Seagate. The introduction of the Barracuda XT drive
marks the shift to the next generation of desktop computing speed as
Seagate doubles the storage bandwidth of current computers, he adds.

The Barracuda XT product, a four-platter drive featuring an areal
density of 368 Gigabits per square inch, delivers burst speeds of up
to 6 Gigabits per second and maintains backward compatibility with
the SATA 3Gb/second and SATA 1.5Gb/second interfaces. It uses the
same cables and connectors as previous SATA generations. The hard
drive's SATA 6Gb/s interface enables system builders using SATA 6Gb/s
drive controllers to build high-performance desktop PCs, full-tilt
gaming rigs, and home and small business servers, and its 64MB cache
optimizes burst performance and data transfer speeds, Mosley says.

Seagate will demonstrate SATA 6Gb/s technology with technology
partners at the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO)
booth, #425, at IDF, Sept. 22-24 at the Moscone Center in San
Francisco, California. Pricing hasn't been announced.