Monday, August 23, 2004
Toshiba announced that it will release 1.8-inch hard-disk drives with storage capacities of 60GB (MK6006GAH) and 30GB (MK3006GAL).
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| MK6006GAH (60GB) and MK3006GAL (30GB) | The company boosted the storage capacity by improving its coating technology for magnetic heads and disks. By making the parts lighter and more shock resistant, the unit is more adaptable for notebook computers and portable devices.
Most important of these is achievement of the highest areal density of any 1.8-inch HDD yet commercialized, 93.5Gbit/sq inch. This has allowed Toshiba to pack 30GB of data onto a single 1.8-inch platter, an increase of 50% over current models, and to deliver drives that are ideally suited for integration into mobile audio players and mobile notebook PCs.
Toshiba's new drives are expected to find wide application in products where large storage capacities must be balanced against the need for a small form factor.
The new drives offer shock resistance of 500G, another new benchmark for 1.8-inch HDDs, the result of use of the smaller, lighter Femto Sliders in combination with a lighter head-suspension and head arm.
Vibration resistance is also double that of Toshiba's current models, thanks to use of feed-forward control in head positioning. In addition, adoption of a fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) motor realizes shock resistance as high as 1,500G during non-operation, a level ideal for integration in mobile digital devices.
Power consumption levels of the "MK6006GAH" and "MK3006GAL" are approximately 20% lower on average than the company's current drive due to application of pulse width modulation (PWM) to control disk rotation speeds. PWM switches the power supply to the spindle motor on and off at a certain frequency. A DC-DC converter is also used in the power unit.
Low-noise operation, as low as 16dB in an idle state, is achieved by use of the FDB motor and an optimized sinusoidal waveform to control the operational current of the spindle motor.
Also, Toshiba cut the sound emanating from the drive's motor to 16 decibels with an eye toward using it in audiovisual equipment such as music players.
Mass production of the new drives will begin in the third quarter of fiscal 2004 (October - December).
The sample price of the 60GB model will be set at about 120,000 yen and the 30GB model's price will be around 100,000 yen. (110.5 yen = US$1)
Toshiba aims to ship about 800,000 units during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2005.
By: DocMemory
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