Quantum's Atlas V Ultra160 SCSI Hard Drive
SCSI One-Ups EIDE Again!

3/17/00 - By, Dave "Davo" Altavilla

We've said this before and we'll say it again, your hard drive is one of the slowest parts of your computer.  Or is it?  Let's take a look at today's computer technology and the speed ratings for various types of components.  Let's see, your main system memory is rated in Nanoseconds.  Your Processor's clock frequency is rated in MHz  Your Graphics card is also measured in MHz for the processor and Nanoseconds for the memory.  Then there is the Hard Drive its access time ( the time it takes for the drive controller to gain access to data on the drive) is rated in Milliseconds.  We aren't going to do the math for you here but "Nano" is one billionth of a second.  "Milli" is one thousandth of a second.  You get the picture.  One of the best performance enhancements you can make to your computer, whether you are into Video Production or Gaming,  is speeding up your storage system. 

Just as the MHz. War has been raging between the various chip suppliers, the Interface Bandwidth War has been raging between the two major camps, EIDE and SCSI.  SCSI always seems to be one step ahead of EIDE and this time is no different.  This is a look at the all new Quantum Atlas V Ultra160 SCSI Drive.  You guessed it.  The "160" here stands for 160MB/sec maximum bus transfer rate.    That is over 2X the current top end bandwidth of EIDE's DMA66 interface. 

Here are the rest of the details...

Specifications / Features Of The Quantum Atlas V
A 7200 RPM and Ultra160 Combo

 

Capacity

9.1

18.3

36.7

Form Factor

3.5 inch

3.5 inch

3.5 inch

Interfaces

Ultra160/m, Ultra2, Ultra SCSI 68-pin Wide

Ultra160/m, Ultra2, Ultra SCSI 80-pin SCA-2

Formatted Capacity (MB2)

9,100

18,300

36,700


Disk Drive Configuration
Number of platters

1

2

4

Head/Recording Surfaces

2

4

8

Bytes per Sector

512

512

512

Maximum Areal Density (Gb/sq. in.)

6.5

6.5

6.5

Encoding/Detection Method

24/25 RLL PRML

24/25 RLL PRML

24/25 RLL PRML


Performance Specifications
Typical Seek Times3 (ms)
Average (read)

6.3

6.3

6.3

Track-to Track

0.8

0.8

0.8

Full Stroke

15

15

15

Average Rotational Latency (ms)

4.17

4.17

4.17

Rotational Speed (RPM)

7,200

7,200

7,200

Internal Data Rate (Mb/sec)

194 to 340

194 to 340

194 to 340

Sustained Throughput (MB/sec)

17 to 29

17 to 29

17 to 29

Data Transfer Rates
(Buffer-to-Host)
Ultra160/m SCSI (MB/sec)

160

160

160

Ultra2 SCSI (MB/sec)

80

80

80

Ultra SCSI (MB/sec)

40

40

40

Buffer Size (MB)

4

4

4

  • Shock Protection System II
  • QDT - Quite Drive Technology
  • Data Protection System (DPS)

 
The picture above is a view of the 36Gig version with the lid off.  We tested the 18 Gig version with two 9 Gig platters inside.  To say the least, this is an impressive set of specs.  The notable points are the huge 4MB Data Buffer size, high density 9Gig Platters, and blistering fast 6.3ms access.  Toss in the all new Ultra160 SCSI interface and we have a winner on paper. 

So we decided to see how it looked when we set it up.  Of course we had to put some new silicon behind this new drive.  That's where Adaptec's new 29160 SCSI Card comes in.

 

 

Ultra160 SCSI - Setup and Installation