14 DAY TRIAL // The Japanese producer announced that in April will start the mass production of hard disks with the dimension of 0.85 inch (2.1cm) which will have a storing capacity of up 4 GB.
The company started the production earlier than it had announced; one of the reasons can be the fact that the company's main competitors already released their small size storing solution: Hitachi and Seagate offer HDD of 1 inch and with a storing capacity of 6 GB.
Currently, the only solution of this type produced in large quantities is Toshiba's model of 0.85 inch with a capacity of 2 GB.
According to information published on the Japanese site PCWatch, the company will start from April the production of 4 GB devices (and not at the beginning of Q3 as it was estimated in the first months) and the production quota will be at the beginning 20.000 - 30.000 devices monthly; after a short interval the production quota will increase.
0.85 inch hard disks were first announced by Toshiba in December 2003. One year later, in September 2004, Toshiba announced that mass production will start until the end of the year, a date which transformed into estimations for the beginning of 2005.
Both models have a speed of 3600 rotations per minute, a weight of less than 10 grams and require 3.3 V to function. Moreover, both models incorporate anti-shock technologies which ensure the functioning of the hard disk even in the case of a 1000G shock. Toshiba intends to develop devices with a greater storing capacity: 6 and 8 GB, devices that should be available starting with next year.
Small size hard disks are mainly aimed at the cell phone, PDA and compact MP3 player market.