Toshiba announced on Tuesday two 1.8-inch hard drives, including the single-platter 120GB (MKxx31GAL series) and the world's first dual-platter 240GB (MK2431GAH) internal hard drives. The single-platter version also includes an 80GB offering.
Generally speaking, 1.8-inch hard drives are small-form-factor, portable hard drives, where the regular size is 2.5-inch, and are used mostly in portable media players, camcorders and compact, ultramobile PCs.
These two new hard drives use the parallel ATA interface and feature the industry's highest area density, at 344Gb per square inch. They incorporate the fourth-generation perpendicular magnetic recording technology, which Toshiba first introduced in 2005.
The new 1.8-inch hard-drive series uses a new mechanical and firmware design for enhanced durability, and is well suited for slim, mobile gadgets, as well as PC applications. The new, dual-platter 240GB product is especially suitable for lightweight, mobile PC devices and high-end digital video camcorders.
Both new hard drives are designed to use up to 33 percent less energy than previous models, and also spin faster at 4,200rpm (up from 3,600rpm). They also come with 8MB of cache, for better write and read performance.
While users may have no need to buy these hard drives on their own, they will probably find them incorporated into CE and mobile products shipping this holiday season.
