Toshiba updates its 1.8-inch HDD lineup

TOSHIBA HAS taken the wraps off a pair of 1.8-inch SATA2 hard drives aimed at mobile computing systems such as netbooks, tablet PCs and portable media players.

The first is a 5,400RPM drive available in 160GB, 240GB and 320GB versions and the second is a 120GB 4,200RPM model. Both promise to use less power than any of their competitors.

Thanks to improvements in areal density, the 120GB is a single platter unit, making it a few millimetres thinner and more durable. It has an 8MB cache and offers a maximum data transfer rate of 533Mbps and a 15ms average seek time.

Its bigger brothers boast an areal density of up to 516Gb per inch, span either one or two platters and have a 16MB cache, promising a 830Mbps maximum data transfer rate and an average seek time of 15ms.

According to Toshiba all of these drives can tolerate up to 1,500Gs of non-operational shock and 500Gs of operational shock.

"Toshiba 1.8-inch HDDs provide a compelling solution for any application that demands extreme mobility along with the ability to reliably and quietly store large amounts of user content," said Maciek Brzeski, vice president of marketing at Toshiba Storage Device Division.

The junior MK1235GSL drive is available now, while the bigger MKxx33GSG series is scheduled to enter mass production in early December. µ