Harddrive with a dual processor? Western Digital Caviar Black

[DrSpanky]

Howdy people

Was just browsing overclockers.co.uk checking out some prices and i noticed this in the new products area.... bellow is the link and the description

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-226-WD

WD Caviar Black high-performance 3.5" SATA drives combine 7200RPM spin speed, 32MB cache, SATA 3 Gb/s interface, and an integrated dual processor for lightning-fast performance in demanding desktop, workstation, and multi-drive systems. Technologically advanced acoustics minimize noise and cool drive operation and enhanced reliability features help protect the drive and the data stored on it. With a massive 1TB of storage, these drives are ideal for power computing applications such as multimedia, video and photo editing, and maxed out gaming computers. Backed by a 5-year limited warranty.

the key thing that stuck out to me is the bit i put in bold.. is that a listing error? and what performance benefit would that give?


EDIT1 - just found it on WD's site http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=488

[thideras]

I'm confused, how would this speed up the drive :confused:

This is like buying a dual core processor for Microsoft Word...

[CGR]

It better not be so much faster that it outperforms my VR.... That would tick me off to no end...

[Hitbox]

better at unpacking 14MB rar's maybe?

[Malpine Walis]

I'm confused, how would this speed up the drive :confused:

This is like buying a dual core processor for Microsoft Word...

Without digging for a whitepaper on the matter, it is only possible to speculate. However, it is probably there to manage the cache so that it increases the odds for a hit.

The fact is that they put processors in lots of odd places these days. I have a toaster that happens to have a low end proc in it and I have seen refrigerators with processors. What exactly they help with, I am not sure but the manufacturers of home appliances would not spend money on them unless they did, in some way, make a better product.

The fact is that during the ramp-up of a new fab, they will make a fairly high percentage of duds. Now if any given dud just does not work at all, then they may as well recycle the core and try again. However, if a dud proc could run at, say 1 Ghz, they would probably be better off selling the thing for some marginal profit than dumping it in the bin. Remember that it costs like $10 or so to make one and if the best that they can do is sell it to WD for $20, then they probably will.

Then WD can charge an arm and a leg because it has a dualie in it, then so much the better for them.

[DrSpanky]

seems a little excessive for just 32mb of cache or do u think its 2 slow processor use less power then 1 faster one and being able to do 2 things at once should reduce cache latencys or something :s i dont rly know much about it to guess...

we will just have to wait and see.

[nd4spdbh2]

POSSIBLY they are essientally making 2 hds out of one, having 2 sets of heads... IE 1TB = 3 platter = 6 sides... = 2 sets of 3 of heads that can move independently and possibly making an internal RAID 0 or something of the sort... now this is only speculation but would be fuggin cool!

[MadMan007]

These were announced a few weeks ago and I've been anxiously awaiting a review especially given that one of the top all-around 7200 RPM drives the WD6400AAKS is part of the 'blue' mid-range line so these are supposed to be better. I'd only wish that they made a lower capacity cheaper one, I don't need the max storage but don't want to drop the money on a 300GB vraptor. We'll have to see how they work out but since it's still 7200 RPM the seek times can't be improved hugely.

POSSIBLY they are essientally making 2 hds out of one, having 2 sets of heads... IE 1TB = 3 platter = 6 sides... = 2 sets of 3 of heads that can move independently and possibly making an internal RAID 0 or something of the sort... now this is only speculation but would be fuggin cool!

Not likely. Mechanical hard drives have been around for ages and I'm sure this has been thought of by engineers so there must be some reason it can't be implemented. The basics of how HDs work haven't really changed, just improvements like rotational speed, areal density and cache management have led to performance improvements.

[Hitbox]

Or possibly some kind of last effort before SSD's become dirt cheap.

[evilrad]

Any idea as to when these drives will available and at what cost? I think I remember seeing one online store that had an ETA of 7/21/08.

[MadMan007]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

[evilrad]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

That's nice. I was actually looking for the 750GB model the other day and Newegg didn't turn up an results for the WD7501AALS (and it still doesn't). Pricegrabber list a few stores that have the 750GB model, but I could have swore that it didn't list any the other day. Oh well... Now all I need is some reviews.

[madhatter256]

All hard drives come with a CPU built into it. It's purpose is both for CACHE, and prefetching algorithms stored in the firmware.

Basically, the 'dual-core' CPU (probably just two ARM processors or AGERE chips) helps in both of those main functions, possibly even power saving and drivespeed algorithms, too.

now that ARM cpus are super cheap and I believe they are 'open source' (some models), manufacturers are making them in the boatloads and sticking them into things that can gain a substantial improvement from it.

[MadMan007]

Yeah I want to see reviews too. Looks like the 750GB model will be at least $160+ which makes it a not very good $/GB proposition. It needs to really smoke to justify the price, otherwise the WD6400AAKS is hard to argue with on $/GB and it is known to perform well.

[ImSpartacus]

Yeah I want to see reviews too. Looks like the 750GB model will be at least $160+ which makes it a not very good $/GB proposition. It needs to really smoke to justify the price, otherwise the WD6400AAKS is hard to argue with on $/GB and it is known to perform well.

Yeah, it's down to 14c/GB on Newegg. It's hard to beat such a deal on such a good performer.