Toshiba announced a 1.8-inch drive that offers a storage capacity of 100GB, claiming it is the largest capacity yet achieved in this class of hard disk drive.

The new model MK1011GAH is based on perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR), a technology for data recording on hard disks that can deliver up to 10 times the storage density of longitudinal recording on the same media.

"PMR is clearly helping (Toshiba) define the possibilities for pushing capacity limits in the mobile sector, with more than 2 million mobile PMR HDDs shipped and over a year in commercialization," said Scott Maccabe, vice president and general manager, Toshiba storage device division.

It has improved error correction code to secure the highest areal density of any 1.8-inch HDD in the market, 240.8 megabits per square millimeter (155.3 gigabits per square inch).

Besides capacity improvement, Toshiba said it has also improved power consumption to 0.003W/GB.
Toshiba plans to start mass production of the MK1011GAH drives in Jan. 2007 for OEMs to bundle in their products.

The drive will be on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from Jan. 8 to 11, 2007, but the drives will not be sold directly to consumers.
"When it comes to the 1.8-inch form factor, there's no doubt that Toshiba leads the pack and this is simply another milestone," Dave Reinsel, director of storage research for IDC, told TechNewsWorld. "This one is specifically focused on trying to move into a niche ultra portable PC market and should fill that market nicely."

Recently, Apple added a 80GB version of its video iPod in September. Although Apple Computer doesn’t want to comment the rumors and speculation, we think that a 100GB iPod model will be released soon.

written by Cristian L.