History 2004: Seagate HDD with Word Record of 500GB

Seagate announced to great fanfare the forthcoming release of its 7,200rpm 500GB HDD, a unit that would have set a world record for capacity, even if it was only available in 2Gb FC interface.

A SATA version for near-line applications was planned for next year.

Christmas seems to have come early, because here we have that announcement, although a careful glance indicates that the Grinch may also have got wind of the news. The original FC drive, whish was to be offered only in 500GB configurations, is now only proposed in either 250 or 400GB capacities.

The NL35, expected in 2004, has been postponed until 2005. That leaves the Bad Santa Seagate a bit red in the face, while the half terabyte HDD is once again a vision of Christmases yet to come.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 202 on November 2004 from the former paper version of Computer Data  Storage Newsletter.