Hard drive Specialist yesterday unveiled what it claims is the fastest hard drive in the world. The Cheetah X15 breaks no records for capacity -- it's an 18GB unit -- or size -- it has a 3.5in form factor -- but it does take drive speeds to a new level. The X15 spins at 15,000rpm, 50 per cent faster than current high-speed drives, which typically rotate at just 10,000rpm. For the X15, that translates to data transfer rates of up to 48MB per second. It also brings drive latency down to just two milliseconds. By comparison, 7200rpm drives typically have latencies of 4.17ms and 10,000rpm drives 2.99ms, Seagate said. The company also said the drive can handled 140 input/output operations every second, compared to 105 for 10,000rpm units and 84 for 7200rpm drives. The X15 has an average seek time of 3.9ms, the company added, down from its 10,000rpm drives' 5.2ms rating. Aimed at high-speed servers, the drive will ship with 4MB or 16MB of cache memory, and with Ultra 160 SCSI and 2Gb Fibre Channel interface options. Samples of the Cheetah X15 18GB drive will be available for major OEMs early in the year's second quarter, with volume production planned the following quarter. Single-unit street pricing is expected to be less than $1000. ®