Samsung launches 2.5-inch 200GB drive

SAMSUNG LAUNCHED a 2.5-inch hard drive with 200GB capacity for the enterprise sector, but we suspect that this drive will be Samsung's own Raptor.

That is to say, a hard drive that was intended for one, but ended up in a completely different market. In terms of Raptor drives, they were expected to kick start the enterprise segment for Western Digital, but ended up in enthusiast desktops throughout the world.

Western Digital ended up even releasing a model with a transparent cover, so that gamers and enthusiasts could see the movement of the heads.

This model just might end up in high-end notebooks, since it does offer something that no other drive offered before. The data is recorded using perpendicular tech, and NCQ (Native Command Queuing) as well. The important feature that definitely confirms that this drive is notebook friendly is RVC (Rotary Vibration Controller) and a "digital free-fall sensor".

Under the name "SpinPoint MP1", Samsung spins a drive designed for filling 1U chassis and blade servers, featuring two 100 GB platters and a rotation speed of 7200 rpm. Drives are available with either 8MB or 16MB of cache, and capacity ranges from 80-200GB.

The firm also launched SpinPoint M5, similar model intended for consumer electronics market, or better - notebooks. This is a bit of a toned down model from the MP1 one, because it does not spot new 100GB platters, rather conventional 80GB one. The capacity ranges from 60-160GB, but the series will expand to 250GB after the development of completes later this year.

Mass production of MP1 is scheduled for mid-May, while the M5 will hit mass production in the next couple of days. µ