Mobile SATA drives, which can hold up to 160GB, are destined for 2007's notebooks.Fujitsu's U.S. subsidiary Aug. 30 introduced two new mobile hard disk drives with perpendicular magnetic recording—a feature that lets a disk greatly increase its capacity for data.
The two new additions—the first mobile disks with PMR in Fujitsu's product line—are the MHW2160BH series, a 160GB, 2.5-inch SATA (Serial ATA) model featuring PMR technology; and the MHW2080AT series, an up-to-80GB PATA (Parallel ATA) hard disk drive.
The 160GB SATA product was developed to address customer demand for increased storage capacity, while the 80GB disk drive was designed for the consumer electronics and external USB storage markets, a company spokesperson said.
Perpendicular magnetic recording is a newly implemented technology for data recording on hard disks that was first demonstrated in Japan in 1976.
The technique is believed to be capable of delivering up to 10 times the storage density of conventional longitudinal recording—on the same media.
There were some attempts to use PMR in floppy disks in the 1980s, but it was not reliable enough. Today there is renewed interest in using it in HDDs, which are quickly reaching their space limits.
With up to 160GB capacity and 5400RPM, the new Fujitsu MHW2160BH series is designed for ultra-fast, high-capacity notebook computers.
Using PMR, the mobile SATA hard disk drives achieve 80GB of storage per platter, among the highest in the industry with this rotation speed, the spokesperson said.
The MHV2160BH hard disk drives will begin shipping in October, the spokesperson said.
The MHW2080AT series are geared toward non-IT applications whose products have a longer life cycle.
Featuring up to 80GB capacity in a single platter as well as low-power consumption, the mobile HDDs also demonstrate reduced acoustic noise and are scheduled to ship next quarter, the spokesperson said.
Notebook OEMs will begin requiring 160GB SATA hard disk drives by early 2007, said Joel Hagberg, vice president of marketing and business development of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Fujitsu Computer Products of America.
Pricing information was not made available.
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