14 DAY TRIAL // Despite all the recent releases of Solid State Drives, coming from several major manufacturers, it appears that Toshiba still thinks that normal HDDs actually stand a chance. The Toshiba Storage Device Division has just announced the industry's highest-capacity series of SATA 1.8-inch hard disk drives. The company claims that the new models will work at 5400 RPM, and will come in 80GB or 160GB models.
The two new models, 160GB MK1617GSG and 80GB MK8017GSG, provide the same storage capacity as the company's larger form-factor HDDs, but come in a smaller form factor, which is reduced by nearly 40-percent compared to the 2.5-inch HDDs. The drives are built on a SATA 1.5Gb/s interface and should be considered a light-weight solution for notebook users. To be more exact, these drives should provide the necessary storage capacity for the recently announced netbooks, for which users still have to wait some more, until they become available in stores.
"Toshiba's eight years in perfecting 1.8-inch HDD technology puts us in a unique position to address explosive growth in the mobility segment with proven products that deliver the performance and capacity that system manufacturers need," said Maciek Brzeski, vice president of marketing at Toshiba Storage Device Division. "At these capacities, our 1.8-inch HDDs are enabling the miniaturization of mobile PCs by providing better power consumption efficiency and improved ruggedness over larger form factors. We continue to see healthy opportunity for 1.8-inch HDD growth and adoption in the mobile PC arena, particularly in thin-and-light, sub-notebook, tablet PC and extreme mobility devices." he added.
According to a research study undertaken by the IDC, forecasts indicate the sub-notebook market will experience a considerable growth. This would explain Toshiba's plans of releasing the 1.8-inch high capacity storage solution, since it should perfectly fit into the above-mentioned market niche. The two new models coming from Toshiba are expected to be shipped to PC manufacturers and distribution partners in August 2008. Unfortunately, the company didn't release any details concerning the price tag of its new HDDs.