Toshiba Announces New, 160GB, 1.8-Inch HDDs

Toshiba, one of the world's leading vendors of storage solutions, has recently announced the expansion of its 1.8-inch HDD portfolio with the introduction of the new 160GB hard-drive model. Boasting a single-platter design and an ultraportable form factor, the new drives are expected to be featured in some of the next generations of portable media players, digital video cameras and other consumer-electronics products. The new model will enable consumer-electronics users to take advantage of an increased-capacity product, compared with currently available solutions.

“With the increasing demand for anytime content access and capture, we continue to see healthy opportunity for 1.8-inch HDDs in portable devices,” Maciek Brzeski, vice president of marketing at Toshiba Storage Device, shares.

Toshiba's new line of parallel ATA HDDs is roughly about the size of a credit card and has been featured with a single-platter design, boasting a platter speed of 4200RPM and an areal density of 467Gbit per square inch. The drives have an average seek time of 15 milliseconds, 8MB of cache and are said to be capable of delivering a data-transfer rate of 100MB/s. According to Toshiba, the new drives are thinner and lighter than any other of the company's hard disk drives, while also offering the quietest seek operating and the most efficient power consumption.

Apple Computer, one of the world's leading vendors of computer systems and consumer electronics, has recently announced the introduction of its new, updated iPod Classic, boasting a 160GB storage capacity, consequently making it capable of storing as many as 45,000 digital photos, 42,000 digital music files or 130 digital videos. Unfortunately, we have no details as to whether the new iPods have been built using Toshiba's latest drive.

Toshiba's MKxx34GAL hard drives are available in models boasting capacities of 60GB, 80GB and 120GB and are reportedly already shipping to consumer-electronics manufacturers.