Drive squeezes 100Gbyte into new-wave notebooks

A Toshiba Europe Storage Device Division product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Apr 26, 2004

The MK1031GAS is a new super-slim 100Gbyte 2.5in hard disk drive Toshiba Europe Storage Device Division.

The MK1031GAS is a new super-slim 100Gbyte 2.5in hard disk drive Toshiba Europe Storage Device Division.

At only 9.5mm high, the new HDD is ideally suited for integration into next generation multimedia portable PCs.

With the capability to store about 400h of MPEG-4 formatted motion pictures of near DVD quality, the latest addition to Toshiba's HDD portfolio offers not only the highest capacity of any drive for this important form factor but also the highest area density yet brought to market - an industry-leading 80Gbit/in2.

By delivering a single platter capacity of 50Gbyte through use of Femto sliders for recording head and by improving thin-film technology for the recording head and platter, the MK1031GAS again affirms Toshiba's industry leadership in 2.5in HDDs.

The new HDD also incorporates an improved, high sensitivity GMR head and load/unload mechanism that isolates the head from the disk when it is not executing read-write instructions.

This increases the drive's resistance to shock and supports a higher bit density.

Toshiba will also commercialise a single-platter 50Gbyte model.

"As we become increasingly mobile, we are looking to storage technologies to deliver the necessary capabilities to carry a wealth of information and entertainment on the move", said Nick Spittle, Business Development Director, Toshiba Storage Device Division Europe.

"This new drive offers the necessary capacity and size breakthrough for portable devices and underlines Toshiba's market leadership in 2.5in HDDs".

The new drive offers an average of 20% lower power consumption than that of current models, by employing pulsewidth modulation method for controlling the spindle motor, and by employing DC/DC convertor in the power unit.

Furthermore, by employing Femto sliders, and lightweight head-suspension as well as head-arm, the MK1031GAS can withstand up to 3185m/s2 (325g, 2ms) of operational shock and 8330m/s2 (850g, 1ms) of non-operating shock.

Use of a fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) motor also delivers low noise operation of 21dB (idle).

Samples of the MX1031GAS will be available from May 2004.