[comp.arch] Drives in IBM RS/6000.

zs01+@andrew.cmu.edu (Zalman Stern) (08/11/90)

elm@sprite.Berkeley.EDU (ethan miller) writes:
> Yes, IBM's new Lightning drives do spin faster than 3600 RPM.  They are
> 3.5" drives that spin at 4300+ RPM.  They're the drives in the RS6000s.
> 
> ethan

A number of people have commented on the high speed drives IBM is using in
their new workstations. Here are some numbers from the "IBM RISC
System/6000 Hardware Technical Reference, Options and Devices" manual
(Order #:SA23-2646-00):

	Model &				Transfer Rate (Mbytes/s)
Form	Capacity  RPM	Avg. Seek Time	Media	One track read
3.5"	120 Meg.  3600	    23.0 ms	 1.3	      1.0
3.5"	320 Meg.  4318	    12.5 ms	 2.0	      1.7
5.25"	355 Meg	  3600	    17.0 ms	 1.9	      1.6
5.25"	670 Meg	  3600	    18.0 ms	 1.9	      1.6
5.25"	857 Meg	  4986	    11.2 ms	 3.0	      2.4

All except the 120 are SCSI drives. The 355 and 670 are made by Maxtor. The
320 (lightning) is an IBM drive and I believe the 857 is made by IBM as
well. I'm pretty sure that the 3.5" drives are only used in the desktop
(Model 320) machine.

A number of the 1 Gigabyte 5.25" drives spin at rates higher than 3600RPM.
The highest I've heard of is 5400RPM (for a Hewlett Packard drive if I
remember correctly).

Sincerely,
Zalman Stern | Internet: zs01+@andrew.cmu.edu | Usenet: I'm soooo confused...
Information Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
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