14 DAY TRIAL // MP3 players, mobile phones and computers are not the only ones to struggle for "vital" storage space. There are other common objects around us that would greatly take advantage of some hard-disk space, such as... your car.
Toshiba has announced a new line of 2.5-inched hard drives intended for automotive applications. Featuring 80 GB storage capacity, the drive uses an ATA-100 interface and spins at 4,200 rotations per minute at a vibration resistance factor of 29.4m/s2. Toshiba's new disks are designed for capacities of 80 and 40 GB (MK8050GAC and MK8050GACE respectively) and use perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) to improve areal recording density.
The drives are intended for use in applications such as car navigation systems as well as on-board entertainment systems, as both models provide enough storage capacity even for high-definition content, digital images or music files. The disk is designed with aerodynamics in mind and the head "floats" on an air cushion at a fixed distance from the platters, which makes it able to read and write data in low pressure conditions at high altitudes. The drive can operate at up to 5,500m above the sea level, 1,200 meters higher than the previous models.
"To deliver these kinds of digital experiences and accommodate all of the digital formats consumers want to bring on the road, automobile manufacturers and aftermarket suppliers must rely on the performance and design flexibility provided by high-capacity HDD storage," said Scott Wright, product marketing manager at Toshiba SDD. "Toshiba automotive-grade HDDs have proven their road-worthiness in actual in-car applications for more than six years, providing the unique features required for this challenging operating environment. We have been a trusted partner of the auto industry for more than 10 years, with numerous design-ins of sophisticated media centers and navigation solutions, working closely with head unit and electronics design engineers to build flexible, reliable storage solutions for in-car applications."
The new line of automotive hard drives are already available as samples to automotive OEMs, as well as to aftermarket suppliers. The discs are supposed to enter mass production in March 2008.