WD®, a Western Digital  (NASDAQ: WDC) company and storage industry leader, today announced the availability  of WD Purple™, a purpose-built line  of 3.5-inch, high-capacity hard drives for surveillance applications. Designed specifically  for video surveillance units, WD Purple hard drives excel in new and existing home  and small business security environments with up to eight hard drives and up to  32 high-definition (HD) video cameras. Shipping today, WD Purple hard drives  are available in capacities from 1 TB up to 4 TB.
 
  “By expanding our ‘Power of Choice’  product portfolio with WD Purple, we make it simple for our VARs, integrators  and consumers to select the right drive engineered for their application and  validated with our industry leading surveillance partners,” said Matt Rutledge,  senior vice president and general manager of WD’s Storage Technology group.  “WD optimized the WD Purple line of hard  drives for surveillance applications to improve high-definition video playback,  and operate in 24x7 workloads of surveillance environments.”
 
  “Different from ordinary desktop hard  drives designed for eight hours of daily operation, WD Purple drives have the built-in  reliability to operate in Hikvision home and small business system installations  so critical video footage is available when it is needed most,” said Ying Yang,  director of testing, Hikvision.  “An additional benefit of WD Purple drives is they support up to eight drives  and 32 HD cameras so there is the flexibility to expand for future system  coverage.”
 
  “The  biggest trend impacting the video surveillance market in recent years has been  the transition from analog cameras to network cameras,” said Jon Cropley,  principal analyst for video surveillance at IHS Technology (NYSE: IHS). “With  enhanced resolution, wide dynamic range and day/night functionality in cameras  increasing, demand for storage solutions capable of accommodating large volumes  of video will also increase.”
 
  Optimized to withstand the demands of always-on  digital PVR, DVR and NVR recording environments, WD Purple hard drives offer low  power consumption and many advanced performance features typically reserved for  enterprise-level storage.
Features
     WD Purple hard drives are equipped with an  array of exclusive WD technologies, including: 

• AllFrame™ - When combined with ATA streaming support,  AllFrame™ technology helps to reduce video footage loss with a proprietary cache  policy management technology to help improve data flow and playback. WD Purple  includes exclusive firmware upgrades that protect against video pixilation and  interruptions within a surveillance system 
• Advanced Format Technology™ (AFT) - the more efficient media format  that enables increased areal densities, adopted by WD and other drive  manufacturers to continue growing hard drive capacities

Engineered for  Compatibility
  Built for easy integration into new or  existing video surveillance systems, WD Purple hard drives are designed and tested  to surveillance-class standards and are compatible with industry-leading  chassis and chip-sets. Without a current industry standard, WD worked closely  with surveillance partners to develop a proprietary benchmark to define and  demonstrate performance in surveillance systems. Tests of WD Purple hard drives  indicate superior performance to competitive surveillance-class brands  of storage, especially as  cameras, channel count and workloads increase. A special Compatibility Selector  is available to assist customers with surveillance drive selection at: http://www.wd.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1210.
 
  Price  and Availability
  Shipping now through select distributors  and resellers, WD Purple surveillance-class hard drives are available in  capacities from 1 TB up to 4 TB and covered by a three-year limited warranty.  MSRP for the 3.5-inch 1 TB drive, model #: (WD10PURX) is $89.99; the 2 TB drive, model #: (WD20PURX) is $119.99; the  3 TB drive, model #: (WD30PURX) is $159.99 and the 4 TB drive, model #: (WD40PURX)  is $199.99 USD. Additional information about WD Purple hard drives and  limited warranty terms may be found on the company website at http://products.wd.com/wdpurple.