G-Technology by Hitachi Showcases Its First 4TB Hard Drives

G-Technology™ Demos a Two-Drive 8TB G-RAID™ Thunderbolt® External Storage Solution With
Blazing Throughput for Post Production; New 4TB Hitachi GST Hard Drives are First to Ship in G-Technology’s G-RAID and G-DRIVE™ solutions

IBC 2011 (Stand #7.D12a), Amsterdam – Post production pros know that you can never have enough fast, cool and reliable storage. Dedicated to serving the Apple® Mac® and creative professional audio/video (A/V) markets, G-Technology by Hitachi is demoing its first 4TB hard drives at IBC 2011 (Stand #7.D12a) in its two-drive, RAID 0, G-RAID solution. Continuing to develop innovative and creative storage solutions for those looking to push creativity beyond the limits, the 8TB G-RAID demo shows how G-Technology is making digital production faster, super-sized and affordable, giving users a competitive edge in the demanding entertainment and film industry.

G-RAID with Thunderbolt - More than Just High-Speed RAID

Not only does the G-RAID Thunderbolt demo showcase the fastest interface you can find with data transfer rates up to 10 Gbps, it shows amazing sustained throughput for handling multi-stream compressed HD workflows including REDCODE, DVCPro HD, XDCAM HD and ProRes 422 . At 8TB it is also the highest capacity, two-drive, RAID 0 external storage device in the world for storing hours of clips, composites, digital intermediate (DIs), proofs, effects and more! And that’s not all. Connected to an Apple MacBook® Pro, the G-RAID solution enables a portable editing workstation to take on the road, in the studio or even use from the comfort of your own home to complete projects after hours. With blazing speed and huge capacity, you can easily transfer, capture, process or edit SD or HD video virtually anywhere!

All G-RAID drives come pre-configured in a RAID-0 for maximum throughput and are specifically designed for video editing with excellent cooling and air flow. Its sleek, all-aluminum enclosure acts as a heat sink, keeping the drives nice and cool, while a super-quiet smart fan makes it a perfect fit in any audio or video post production environment. For easy set up, the G-RAID solution is ready right out of the box for use with Mac OS X systems and appears to the system as a single, big and fast disk drive. The G-RAID solution also supports Windows® systems with a simple reformat.¹

Hitachi GST’s 4TB Hard Drives

Leveraging the high-quality and time-to-market strength of Hitachi GST, G-Technology by Hitachi will be incorporating Hitachi’s 4TB 7,200 RPM drives into its G-RAID and G-DRIVE solutions.

With ever increasing capacity needs with the use of high-quality HD video formats, G-Technology’s 4TB-based solutions enable greater return on investment. By using the highest capacity drives, G-Technology customers save by lowering the cost per GB of storage as compared to having the same total capacity using multiple lower capacity external drives. In addition, customers benefit from needing fewer external drives, which take up space and power, and create cable clutter.

Just how much storage do you need? Since there are substantial differences in storage requirements for the different types of high quality HD video files, G-Technology provides this guide to show how much storage space² you may need:



Every 1TB holds up to:

84 hours of HDV 1080i
17 hours of DVCPRO HD 1080/60i
30 hours of 2K RED
10 hours of ProRes 422 HQ
10 hours of 10 bit SD
2.5 hours of HD 1080/60

“We understand the process of creation, and today, digital video editing is no longer facility-driven – It’s driven by the places and lifestyles of the people doing the work,” said Steve Pereira, vice president, Hitachi GST, Europe Middle East and Africa. “Our G-RAID Thunderbolt demo connected to a MacBook Pro shows how our customers can get lightning speed and huge capacity in a single RAID 0 storage solution to easily edit anywhere. Built like a tank, our G-RAID solution has been the cornerstone of our business, and we look forward to bringing our Thunderbolt-based family and 4TB-based solutions to the market. With G-Technology’s high quality, high performance commitment, our customers can continue to focus on their work and not on their equipment.”

G-Technology will begin shipping its 4TB-based G-RAID and single-drive G-DRIVE solutions with eSATA, FireWire 800 (FireWire 400 via cable) and USB 2.0 ports in October. First in a family of solutions, the company’s Thunderbolt 4TB-based G-RAID and G-DRIVE solutions will ship in Q4.

About Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) develops advanced hard disk drives, enterprise-class solid state drives, innovative external storage solutions and services used to store, preserve and manage the world’s most valued data. Founded by the pioneers of hard drives, Hitachi GST provides high-value storage for a broad range of market segments, including Enterprise, Desktop, Mobile Computing, Consumer Electronics and Personal Storage. Hitachi GST was established in 2003 and maintains its U.S. headquarters in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit the company’s website at http://www.hitachigst.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 360,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2010 (ended March 31, 2011) consolidated revenues totaled 9,315 billion yen ($112.2 billion). Hitachi will focus more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes information and telecommunication systems, power systems, environmental, industrial and transportation systems, and social and urban systems, as well as the sophisticated materials and key devices that support them. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company’s website at http://www.hitachi.com.

Hitachi GST remains an independent company until the acquisition by Western Digital closes, anticipated to take place in Q4 2011. Our product portfolio has been a driver of our success. Until the close, we continue to execute plans for our communicated product roadmap and both companies intend to ship all product lines in parallel until their logical end of life. Customers can rest assured that when the acquisition is complete all Hitachi GST terms and conditions of the product warranty in effect at the time of purchase will be honored.


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¹ The G-RAID 4TB, 6TB and 8TB models are not supported by Windows XP or older 32-bit operating systems, which limit maximum volume size to 2.2TB. G-RAID 4TB, 6TB and 8TB models are compatible with Mac OS X, Windows Vista or other 64-bit operating systems.

² One GB is equal to one billion bytes, and one TB equals 1,000 GB (one trillion bytes). Actual capacity will vary depending on operating environment and formatting. G-Technology drives serve as an element of an overall storage and backup strategy. It is recommended that users keep two or more copies of their most important files backed up or stored on separate devices.

G-RAID, G-DRIVE and G-Technology are trademarks of Hitachi GST. Hitachi trademarks are authorized for use in countries and jurisdictions in which Hitachi has the right to market the brands. Hitachi is not liable for third parties’ unauthorized use of Hitachi trademarks. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.