Disk maker Seagate has announced its first shipments of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) hard drives to computer manufacturers. SAS drives, which should appear in products by next summer, use a new serial version of the SCSI interface to improve performance and make installation easier.

Seagate's announcement follows the recent completion of interoperability testing at the third SCSI Trade Association SAS Plugfest at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratory. The interoperability testing proved the successful operation of SAS versions of Seagate's Cheetah 15K.4 and Savvio 10K.1 drives with a wide variety of SAS configurations and topologies.

The Cheetah drive is a traditional 3.5in mechanism with a fast spin-speed suitable for demanding database applications. The Savvio is a ground-breaking 2.5in mechanism operating at a lower spin-speed that is suited to small format servers, such as rack-mounted blades.

Jeff Loebbaka, Seagate vice-president of marketing, said, "With the completion of this third Plugfest, Seagate is pleased to announce that its first technology-leading SAS solutions are now ready to ship to the industry. SAS-enabled systems using Seagate storage such as Savvio 10K.1, the industry's first 2.5in enterprise disk drive, will provide exceptional levels of system performance and reliability."

Laptop computers have used 2.5in drives for some time, but the Savvio is one of the first drives of this size to be optimised for use in servers. Observers said a range of new format disk drives are due to go on sale next year, including several designed for consumer goods such as portable cameras and phones.