According to DigiTimes, Toshiba has announced the world's largest 1.8" HDD with a 100GB capacity. This drive features perpendicular magnetic recording technology along with improved error correction to fit 240.8Mb (30.1MB) per mm2. It spins at 4,200RPM, has a 15ms average seek time and consumes just 0.3W of power, going by this Channel Register article. Toshiba expects to start mass production of the drive in January 2007.
1.8" hard drives are commonly used in handheld media players, such as the iPod, Zen Vision:M, Zune and so on, as well as certain ultra-compact laptops. While 100GB may seem huge for music storage, the additional space is useful for carrying more videos without having to sacrifice on quality using lower bitrate encodings.
Product Specifications
| Model Number | MK1011GAH | |
| Capacity (Formatted) | 100GB | |
| Number of platters | 2 | |
| Number of heads | 4 | |
| Average seek time | 15 msec | |
| Data transfer rate | 100MB/s | |
| Rotational speed | 4,200 rpm | |
| Interface | ATA-7 (LIF connector) | |
| External Dimensions (WxDxH; mm) | 54.0x71.0x8.0 | |
| Weight | 59 g (max.) | |
| Energy consumption efficiency | 0.003 W/GB | |
| Shock resistance | Operating | 4,900 m/s2 (500G, 2msec) |
| Non-operating | 14,700 m/s2 (1,500G, 1msec) | |
