Toshiba unveils 200GB 2.5inch hard disk drive

 

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By Steve Malone

Posted on 6 Jun 2006 at 10:32

Toshiba's Storage Device Division has unveiled a new hard disk of staggering proportions. The company has developed a 2.5-inch hard disk drive capable of storing 200GB of data. According to the company, the drive boasts the world's highest areal density at 178.8 Gbits per square inch and the highest capacity in the standard 9.5mm mobile PC format.

The new device means that notebooks will be able to match the storage capacity of desktop machines making them a much better proposition for anyone wishing to use their computer for gaming, video, music and other multimedia applications.

The drive gets its first viewing at the Computex Show in Taiwan. Toshiba is currently the world leader in mobile HDD shipments with an estimated 29 per cent market share, according to industry analysts IDC.

The company says the drive is based on Toshiba's Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) technology and incorporates new tunnel magneto-resistive recording (TMR) head development.

The device weighs 98 grams and incorporates the Serial ATA (SATA) II interface with native command queuing for data transfer rates of 150Mb sec. It has two platters, four heads and a rotational speed of 4200 rpm.

Toshiba says it will start volume production of the 2.5-inch 200GB hard disk drive in August.