Intel Shark Bay chipset to support hybrid HDDs

Intel revealed at the IDF in San Francisco that its Haswell ULV chipset for ultrabooks, better known as Shark Bay platform, will support hybrid storage devices with Intel Rapid Storage Technology 12.5. The chip giant explains hybrid HDDs need support from both the chipset and the operating system to achieve optimal performance. Additionally, Intel also told the Inquirer that this feature will only be available for Windows, and not for Linux.

While Seagate has been shipping hybrid Momentus XT drives for some time, Intel said to get the most out of such storage devices there needs to be chipset and operating system support. The firm said its Shark Bay chipset and Rapid Storage Technology 12.5 support "hybrid hinting" so the system can use flash and platter storage at the right times.

Intel said it has been working with Western Digital and Seagate to build support for hybrid drives in Shark Bay, while playing up support for hybrid drives in Microsoft's Windows 8. According to Intel, Haswell ULV ultrabooks with hybrid drives will use flash storage to keep boot times at a minimum, however Intel confirmed to The INQUIRER that it's hybrid storage optimisations will be Windows only and is not doing any work to support Linux.

Intel claims its Rapid Storage Technology 12.5 will provide a 30 percent performance boost to hybrid drives, though it didn't provide any concrete benchmark figures.