Hitachi Global Storage Technologies on Thursday launched a 2TB hard disk drive for desktops, the industry's first to run at 7,200 rpm.
The Deskstar 7K2000 competes with devices such as Seagate's 2TB Barracuda LP drive, which operates at 5,900 rpm, and Western Digital's 2TB Caviar Green drive, which runs at 5,400 rpm.
Western Digital has published promotional material in Japan hinting at a possible 2TB Caviar Black drive running at 7,200 rpm, but the company has not yet officially announced this product.
Hitachi was the first to ship a 1TB desktop drive, the Deskstar 7K1000, in 2007.
The new 2TB drive is aimed at gaming systems, workstations and desktop Raid arrays, according to the company. It uses a 32MB cache and a 3Gbps Sata interface.
The drive uses technology already proven in existing drives, including five platters of 400GB each, which Hitachi referred to as a "relaxed" bit density.
The company has developed higher-density platters of 500GB each, but it is not using them in the 2TB product. Instead, it will use the 500GB platters in a revamp of the Deskstar 7K1000.C family of 7,200 rpm drives, which will come in capacities of between 160GB and 1TB, Hitachi said.
Higher-density platters mean a drive can use fewer platters, reducing the number of moving parts and increasing reliability.
The Deskstar 7K1000.C drives, which will begin shipping before the end of September, feature 512-byte sector formatting, a patented ramp load/unload design to increase shock protection and a Thermal Fly-height Control to improve reliability by maintaining consistent fly-height during the read/write process.
The 7K2000 and 7K1000.C drives both include power-saving features such as the Hitachi Voltage Efficiency Regulator (HiVert), for power management and thermal emissions regulation, and lower power usage while idling compared to previous generations of Hitachi drives.
The 7K2000 sells for $329 (£196) in the US. No UK pricing is available.
